Staff Reports
The legal world was shocked when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pulled himself out of a case involving John Eastman, who used to work for Thomas as a law clerk and later became an attorney for Trump. After it came out that Eastman may have done something illegal with the legal advice he gave to former President Donald Trump, Thomas made the choice. The case was mostly about trying to stop a U.S. House subcommittee from asking Chapman University, where Eastman used to work, to hand over texts.
Eastman's appeal to the Supreme Court was turned down, but a lower court's decision that he had to hand over the emails stayed in place. There was no written reason for Justice Thomas's recusal, and the court did not explain why the case was denied. Eastman has been in a lot of legal problems lately. He used to work as a clerk for Thomas and is said to have talked to the justice's wife in recent years.
Supreme Court denies lawyer John Eastman petition, with rare recusal from Justice Clarence Thomas https://t.co/mWmO6CPQ5q pic.twitter.com/N8WsOBPbs2
— The Hill (@thehill) October 3, 2023
He fought for former President Trump in a case that tried to overturn election results in four states. He also spoke at the rally on January 6 before the protests at the Capitol. Eastman thought that Mike Pence, who was Vice President at the time, might not confirm the 2020 election results. This idea did not come true in the end. A federal judge said that Trump and Eastman had "more likely than not" broken the law by trying to get in the way of Congress, so they had to hand over some emails.
Eastman has filed an appeal against the judge's decision, saying that it made him and Trump look bad. He is also being investigated for crime in Georgia for what he did after the 2020 election, and he is currently being investigated for disbarment in California. Even though Eastman was in trouble with the law, over 100 former law clerks who worked for Justice Thomas signed an open letter defending his honor after he was accused of accepting gifts from GOP supporters. In the letter, he made it clear that his honesty can't be questioned and refused any attacks on his character.
