The California Supreme Court permanently disbarred John Eastman on Wednesday, ending his right to practice law in the state after years of disciplinary findings over his role in Donald Trump’s bid to keep power after losing the 2020 election. The court denied the petitions for review and ordered that John Charles Eastman be disbarred from the practice of law in California and stricken from the roll of attorneys.
The ruling closes one of the most consequential professional collapses to follow the 2020 election. Eastman drafted a series of memos in the weeks after that vote outlining a plan to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory, then promoted a legal theory that Vice President Mike Pence could unilaterally reject electoral votes from key battleground states. Pence refused to follow that advice and said he had no authority to overturn the election.
California bar authorities concluded that Eastman made false statements in court filings, promoted claims of election fraud without evidence and used his legal credentials to advance a strategy aimed at overturning a lawful election. Lower courts found that he had repeatedly misled courts and advanced baseless claims in service of Trump’s effort to stay in power after losing the presidency in 2020. Courts across the country repeatedly rejected claims of widespread voter fraud, undercutting the arguments Eastman pressed into the post-election fight.
The day-to-day stakes for Eastman have already shifted beyond California. He is currently suspended from practicing law in Washington, D.C., where disciplinary proceedings tied to his post-election conduct are ongoing. The California decision adds a permanent penalty to a record that already made him one of the most closely watched figures in Trump’s failed effort to reverse the election.
The record also captures how quickly the effort fractured after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In the days after the attack, Eastman sought a pardon from Trump and wrote in an email to Trump allies, “I’ve decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works.” That request now sits beside the court’s final judgment: the man once described as a key architect of the post-election strategy has been stripped of his license in California, with no further review left there.