According to reports, the FBI seized the phone of former President Donald Trump's election attorney John Eastman last week. And this news comes just after we learned that the January 6 riot committee announced a sudden hearing for tomorrow when none were planned until July. I'm not saying the two are related because so much news is unfolding. And there is a lot to unpack here with the two revelations.
Via CNN:
Eastman disclosed the search and seizure in federal court in a lawsuit that he filed in New Mexico on Monday, calling it improper.
About six federal investigators approached the right-wing lawyer in New Mexico when he was exiting a restaurant after dinner with his wife and a friend, according to the court filings. Agents were able to get access to Eastman's email accounts on his iPhone 12 Pro, the filings said.
Eastman is the latest person whose communications have become part of extensive Justice Department investigations related to January 6.
According to another report, Eastman was having dinner at a restaurant with his wife and a friend when about six federal agents approached him.
Eastman contends the agents "forced" him to unlock his phone. A seizure warrant document included in Eastman's filing noted any electronic devices agents seized were to be sent to Washington, DC, or the Justice Department inspector general's forensic lab in northern Virginia.
He's not very happy about this.
Eastman is asking a federal judge to force the Justice Department to return his property, destroy records it has obtained and block investigators from being allowed to access the phone.
Eastman was featured at the "Stop the Steal Rally" on January 6. "We know that dead people voted," he falsely said at the time.
Eastman authored a series of memos – the "Coup Memos" -- to outline a plan to overturn the 2020 election that Trump lost to Joe Biden. He will never get the stink of Trump off of him. Shouldn't he be disbarred by now? After all, he urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to not count electoral votes from states Joe Biden narrowly won so that Donald Trump could cling to power.
Eastman sought a pardon after January 6, and Trump didn't grant it.
