Pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman pleads not guilty to Arizona charges
PHOENIX – John Eastman, an alleged architect of an attempt to deliver Arizona’s 11 presidential electoral votes to Donald Trump after his 2020 loss, pleaded not guilty Friday to conspiracy, fraud and other criminal charges brought by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D).
Wearing a navy suit and tie, Eastman appeared alongside his attorneys in a tiny courtroom in the basement of a court complex in downtown Phoenix and become the first of 18 defendants to appear for an arraignment. All were indicted last month by a state grand jury on charges stemming from an alleged Republican-run attempt to put forward a slate of electors purporting that Trump had won the state, despite his 10,457-vote loss to Joe Biden.
Standing before Court Commissioner Shellie Smith, Eastman stated his name into a microphone before she entered on his behalf “not guilty” pleas on nine counts. As his quick proceeding ended, defendants wearing sheriff-issued orange jumpsuits entered a holding area behind him for their own proceedings.
As Eastman left court, he told reporters that Mayes should not have brought the case against him.
“I had zero communications with any of the electors in Arizona, zero involvement with any of the litigation or the legislative hearings in Arizona,” he said, standing just steps outside the courtroom. “We will proceed with trial and I’m confident if the law is faithfully applied, I’ll be fully exonerated.”
Eastman was also processed by county law enforcement, which took his mug shot. Other defendants – including former state party chair Kelli Ward, elector Tyler Bowyer and other electors – have had their photographs taken. Eastman’s appearance was a dress rehearsal of sorts for future proceedings for his co-defendants, who include the state’s 11 GOP electors; former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb; top campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn; and former campaign aide Mike Roman. As of this week, the attorney general’s office had been unable to serve Giuliani notice of his three-week-old indictment, despite repeated attempts.
Many of the defendants are scheduled for arraignments on Tuesday, including most of the state GOP electors, who signed and submitted official-looking paperwork to the federal government that inaccurately declared that Trump had won the state.
Prosecutors said the plan was intended to provide a basis to help claim that the outcome of the election was in doubt and to obstruct Congress’s certification of Biden’s win.
Other defendants are scheduled for court appearances in June.
Weeks after Trump’s defeat in Arizona, the 11 GOP electors convened at the state Republican Party’s headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020. There, according to records and video shared by the party on social media, they claimed they were legitimate electors.
Trump’s defenders – including some of the Arizona electors and their attorneys – have insisted that the elector strategy was legal because the slates met as mere placeholders, to be activated only if the campaign won in court.
Eastman, a conservative lawyer who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, played a key role in drafting the unusual legal strategy to try to help Trump stay in power by using the vice president’s ceremonial role overseeing the election certification proceeding. He, Giuliani and other Trump allies are accused of pressuring lawmakers in Arizona and six other states, including Georgia, to try to undo Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The Arizona indictment said that Eastman pushed then-state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) to convene a special legislative session to decertify Arizona’s legitimate presidential electors.
“Just do it, and let the court sort it out,” Eastman allegedly said. Bowers declined. He met with state prosecutors and investigators as they probed events after the 2020 election here.
At an event in Michigan last week, Eastman mentioned his indictment in Arizona. Speaking at an event sponsored by a conservative activist group critical of the way Michigan has run elections, Eastman said that he had no communication with Arizona’s electors and suggested the case against him was baseless, according to a recording of the event, obtained by The Washington Post.
“I had zero involvement with the election challenges in Arizona,” Eastman said. “I responded to a request from a legislator to talk to the speaker of the Assembly for about five minutes. That was it. That was it. And yet I’m indicted co-conspirator No. 13 in Arizona.”
Emails released to the Post in response to a public records request show that Eastman on Jan. 1, 2021, introduced himself to then-state Rep. Mark Finchem (R), who then helped facilitate Eastman’s conversation with Bowers. The men spoke on the morning of Jan. 4, 2021, records show.
Eastman is also facing criminal charges in Georgia over his alleged efforts to try to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in that state. In March, a California judge recommended that Eastman be disbarred there over his role in the Trump campaign’s efforts to reverse the 2020 election.
The felony charges come as election officials remain deeply concerned about potential efforts to delay or challenge the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in a state where false theories and misinformation about elections have flourished.
The charges in Arizona follow similar prosecutions in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada, where Republicans also convened and falsely portrayed themselves as true electors from their states.
They mark deepening legal peril for the Arizona electors and national Republicans who have faced intense scrutiny from Mayes and federal prosecutors overseen by special counsel Jack Smith. The special counsel brought charges against Trump last year that included his alleged attempt to use electors to falsely claim that the outcome of the election was in doubt, as a mechanism to try to thwart Biden’s victory.
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Patrick Marley contributed to this report from Madison, Wis.