John Eastman claimed on Monday that federal investigators had taken his phone, which was the source of the controversial legal memo that explained how Donald Trump might declare victory despite losing the 2020 presidential election.
According to a court document originally seen by CNN, Eastman alleged that police ‘forced’ him to unlock his iPhone 12 Pro and access his email accounts.
The right-wing lawyer in New Mexico was reportedly confronted by six agents on Wednesday night last week as he was leaving a restaurant with his wife and another individual.
According to the complaint, authorities had a warrant to seize Eastman’s electronic equipment.
According to the complaint, Eastman “was had to supply biometric data to open said phone,” “was not given a copy of the search warrant until after his phone was seized,” and “even then, he was only given a copy of the search warrant but not the supporting affidavit cited in it.”
He is now asking a New Mexico court to order the federal government to destroy the records it obtained and prevent further access, as well as to return his property.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has made a number of high-profile actions recently to take action against people who are suspected of taking part in attempts to scuttle President Joe Biden’s election.
At least nine persons from various states have been subpoenaed by the DOJ on suspicion of aiding Trump’s purported use of “fake electors” to rig the Electoral College in his favor.
According to reports, federal agents carried out Eastman’s search warrant on the same day that police searched the residence of Jeffrey Clark, a former environmental attorney for the DOJ who assisted the previous president in his effort to weaponize the agency in order to maintain power.
Former officials have alleged that the threat of “hundreds” of resignations from throughout the administration resisted Trump’s attempt to appoint Clark as the acting attorney general.
On January 6, 2021, Eastman shared a platform with former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani during the former president’s ‘Stop The Steal’ rally, which came just before the Capitol brawl.
The former professor of law devised a putative legal plan, according to which Mike Pence, who was vice president at the time, could unilaterally reject Electoral College votes from particular battleground states.
He apparently told Trump about the idea in the Oval Office.
When Pence refused to carry out the plan despite pressure from Trump and Eastman, it infuriated the former president’s followers, some of whom on January 6 screamed “Hang Mike Pence” in the Capitol’s hallways.
In the end, he presided over the joint session of Congress that officially proclaimed Biden the winner.
Eastman’s legal conflict with the DOJ coincides with a protracted legal battle with the House select committee looking into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, which has lasted months.
Early this year, a judge who had ordered Eastman to hand over hundreds of emails to the January 6 committee declared that he and Trump had probably broken the law.
According to the evidence, US District Judge David Carter concluded in March that President Trump and Dr. Eastman “more likely than not” collaborated dishonestly to disrupt the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.
Eastman’s strategy was termed by him as “a coup in search of a legal philosophy.”