A judge has banned a witness for former President Donald Trump’s lawyer from talking about the issue of tallying electoral votes.
This comes after a lawyer representing attorney John Eastman sparred in his case over voting machine issues. Eastman, the mastermind behind Trump’s strategy to stay in power following the disastrous 2020 presidential election, is facing 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California.
He reportedly developed a legal strategy aimed at having then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of now-President Joe Biden.
Prosecutors have claimed that Eastman continued in his attempts to sabotage the election even after state and federal agencies publicly disproved the allegations of fraud made by Trump supporters.
“All of his misconduct was done with one singular purpose: To obstruct the electoral count on Jan. 6 and stop Vice President Pence from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the election,” Duncan Carling of the office of chief trial counsel said during Tuesday’s proceedings. “He was fully aware in real time that his plan was damaging the nation.”
He was fully aware in real time that his plan was damaging the nation,” Carling added. “Dr. Eastman sought at every turn to avoid every public test of his theory, and he privately confessed… that his theory had no chance of persuading the court.”
In response, Eastman attempted to bring Joseph Fried, a public accountant who published an eBook that questioned the validity of Biden’s election victory, as an expert witness. But Judge Yvette Roland of the California State Bar Court immediately saw right through the strange request and denied Fried.
“I don’t see how Mr. Fried is qualified to be an expert,” Roland told Eastman. “He has no experience in voting or election matters.”
Carling, who is also seeking Eastman’s disbarment, agreed with the judge and said that the witness himself never identified any problems during the 2020 election.
“We don’t believe the opinion of a CPA… is relevant,” he said, adding that the accountant “never identified any instances of fraud” in the election.
The hearings are expected to last at least eight days, and it can take weeks or even months before a decision is made.
