- A judge ruled that the Jan. 6 committee may see 159 new emails from one of Trump’s lawyers.
- They show how lawyers feared losing a legitimate legal challenge to certify the 2020 election.
- “Instead, they launched a political campaign to disrupt the election count,” a judge said.
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An email from one of Trump’s lawyers says they decided not to go to court with a challenge to the 2020 election certification process in court, for fear of the consequences of losing.
Failure would “shut down” his plan to politically disrupt the count, new court documents describing the email said.
U.S. District Court Judge David Carter discussed the email in a ruling that said one of Trump’s post-election lawyers, Dr. John Eastman, had to reveal a cache of 159 messages.
One of them could be evidence of a crime, Carter wrote.
After the election, Eastman helped work out Trump’s denial efforts, and eventually wrote an instant infamous note to then-Vice President Mike Pence refusing to accept the January 6 election certifications, as reported C. Ryan Barber of Insider.
In March 2022, Judge Carter concluded that Trump and Eastman “most likely not” attempted to illegally obstruct Congress in a criminal conspiracy, Politico reported.
Since then, Eastman has demanded various forms of privilege to try to prevent the release of tens of thousands of related documents to the Jan. 6 committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a ruling Tuesday seen by Insider, Carter discussed the 159 emails and why they should be disclosed.
This gave an idea of how Eastman’s group developed the strategy, and how, Carter said, they felt they had “almost no chance of success in DC courts” with “certain election demands.” .
This was in a set of four emails referring to January 6 only as the deadline for filing lawsuits, which Carter said allowed them to remain hidden from the public.
But another email from December 22, 2020 linked those deliberations to what an unnamed lawyer called “the January 6 strategy.” As for a possible crime, he could be released, Carter wrote.
“This email considers whether a case should be filed that would decide the interpretation of the Electoral Count Act and potentially the risk of a court determining that the Act binds Vice President Pence,” Carter wrote.
By “link,” Carter meant that a court could unequivocally say that Pence could not reject the results of the state election at the Jan. 6 hearing, which is exactly what Trump and his allies hoped Pence could do.
“Because the lawyer concluded that a negative court ruling” would close the January 6 strategy, [the attorney] encouraged the legal team to avoid the courts.
“This email consolidated the direction of the January 6 plan. Trump’s legal team chose not to go to court, instead they launched a political campaign to disrupt the election count.
“Lawyers are free not to file cases; they are not free to evade judicial review to overturn a democratic election.”
The e-mail considered by Carter also reveals the depth of Eastman’s efforts to persuade the state to introduce alternative voters, which went far beyond pressuring Pence and “addressed all levels of federal elected officials and statewide, “Carter wrote.