WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
Former Donald Trump attorney John Eastman wants to separate his own legal case from Trump, attorney Rudy Giuliani and other defendants whose cases are much “weaker” than his, he claims.
Eastman will not cooperate with prosecutors as they seek to convict him and 18 other defendants charged this week with criminal conspiracy in connection with Trump’s election-cancellation effort, his team insists.
And he is eager to distance himself from others in legal danger as quickly as possible, believing he can be acquitted in a trial that would only take a few weeks.
“People with stronger defenses don’t want to be messed up with issues with people with weaker defenses,” Eastman’s attorney Harvey Silvergate told DailyMail.com.
“The former mayor of New York is in a very different position than John Eastman,” he added. “The former mayor of New York and Trump and a few others may be tried together,” he predicted.
Attorney John Eastman wants to separate his own court case from 18 other defendants who have been charged in Fulton County, Georgia, including former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani
The move is a key early sign of what could be a relentless scramble for life jackets following a sprawling indictment that joins 19 defendants – and names a series of unindicted co-conspirators who may be cooperating with the prosecutors.
Their fates are now linked amid a massive legal and logistical challenge of bringing a racketeering case against 19 defendants. All were ordered to appear before August 25 to be arrested.
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is already trying to get his Georgia case transferred to federal court, while he may try to defend immunity for corporate conduct as a public official of the US government.
Silvergate has previously said Eastman plans to focus his defense on his role as an attorney – providing advice and drafting arguments on behalf of his client, Trump, who prosecutors say engaged in an all-out effort. to remain in office despite losing to Joe. Biden.
“Eastman is in a unique position because he is the only one who has acted 100% in his role as an attorney for his client,” he said.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis spoke to the media the night a grand jury handed over a sprawling indictment alleging a criminal conspiracy related to Trump’s election-cancellation effort .
Former President Donald Trump called the indictment a ‘witch hunt’ in a new Fox Business interview
“The former mayor of New York is in a very different position than John Eastman,” Eastman attorney Harvey Silvergate said.
Silvergate said Eastman was “the only one who acted 100% in his role as an attorney for his client”
“He will plead not guilty. He won’t make any deals. We are going to be judged,” he said. “We hope we go to trial alone because it makes more sense in the world.”
Giuliani also served as Trump’s attorney. He is the second person named after the ex-president in the sweeping indictment handed over Tuesday night.
He faces significant exposure in the Fulton County case. He is charged with 13 counts, including misrepresentation and solicitation of public officials as part of the “fake” voters scheme.
Giuliani himself has testified before the grand jury and is struggling to extricate himself from a legal quagmire that has him facing up to seven-figure attorney fees.
That alone makes him a potential target for cooperation, assuming prosecutors were open to a deal. He reportedly recently traveled to Mar-a-Lago to ask Trump for help with his legal bills.
Eastman himself is charged with racketeering, solicitation of breach of oath, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, and conspiracy to make false statements.
He penned a crucial memo that outlined options for Trump, including Vice President Mike Pence refusing to accept state-certified electoral votes once a group of states Trump was contesting had sent. “substitute” voters.
The indictment says Eastman emailed Giuliani in December 2020 and forwarded a memo from attorney John Chesebro titled: “The Real Time Frame for Settling State Electoral Votes.” He says he phoned Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers to ask him to “illegally” nominate voters.
It also says he urged Mike Pence’s chief of staff to get the vice president to refuse to take votes, and that Trump and Eastman were calling Pence on Jan. 5 in which they tried to persuade him to do the same. He also spoke at the Ellipse on January 6.
Eastman is among several defendants who may try to defend themselves against the First Amendment, while using their role as a lawyer as a shield. Silvergate called the charges an effort to “criminalize” the plea.
“I think if the Eastman trial is held separately, it could be completed in less than two weeks,” Silvergate said. “And he will be acquitted. Because it is very, very clear that he has not committed any crime,” he added.
Even as he sorts out his legal battle in Georgia, Eastman is fighting to keep his attorney’s license in California, where members of a state bar want to punish him immediately for his role in the Jan. 6 unrest.
Silvergate called it “straight out of Alice in Wonderland, Queen of Hearts: First Punishment, Then Trial”. He wants the bar to wait for the result in Georgia.
California State Bar attorney Duncan Carling wrote on Tuesday that the charges brought by Fulton County Attorney Fani Willis could take “years to resolve.”