Judge's scathing rebuke of Trump, Eastman goes beyond criminal charges
On Monday, federal Judge David Carter reached a remarkable conclusion: Donald Trump, when he was the leader of this country, and attorney John Eastman launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. And thank goodness for that; everything about Carters stinging 44-page rebuke of Trump, Eastman and others should be stunning and unprecedented. We dont want to live in a society in which any of the actions surrounding the 2021 insurrection are normal, accepted or met without scrutiny and consequences.
Carters decision reminds us how close our country came to the abyss.
The legal question before Carter was fairly narrow: whether the House committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could obtain 111 emails sent from and to Eastman, the former dean of Chapman Law School, who provided political and legal counsel to Trump. Carter methodically examined each of the legal arguments and concluded that of the 111 emails, only 10 were covered by an evidentiary privilege and therefore didnt need to be handed over to the Jan. 6 committee.
Perhaps more important than Carters ultimate conclusion, though, is that his opinion succinctly tells the tale of the real-life nightmare we all lived the one in which our former president tried to take our representative democracy from us. Carters decision reminds us how close our country came to the abyss and how, if we fail to examine what happened, January 6 will repeat itself.
Carter spent dozens of pages dissecting Eastmans claims that the emails in question were covered by attorney-client privilege and the work product privilege, but its worth pointing out a few of the more startling, and yet entirely correct, legal conclusions.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judges-scathing-rebuke-of-trump-eastman-goes-beyond-criminal-charges/ar-AAVEZnk