The lawyer behind a plot to send fake electors to Congress and keep former President Donald Trump in the White House won’t get his phone back from federal investigators.
A federal judge in New Mexico wrote that he isn’t going to keep investigators from using the contents found on John Eastman’s phone from being used as part of an investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Investigators took Eastman’s phone last month as he was leaving a restaurant.
Eastman challenged the investigators’ authority to search the phone. However, U.S. District Judge Robert Brack rejected Eastman’s arguments and said the FBI had the green light to take his phone and unlock it, according to CNN.
JOHN EASTMAN DROPS LAWSUIT AGAINST JAN. 6 COMMITTEE OVER PHONE RECORDS
The Department of Justice told the judge it was planning on getting another warrant before it searched the phone, and it is expected the DOJ will put a “filter team” in place to sort through what material on Eastman’s phone might be considered privileged.
“Because there is no evidence that the Government has searched the phone or plans to search it without the benefit of a Filter Team, and because the warrant specifies that no search of the phone will occur until further order of the court, Eastman fails to show a likelihood of success” that his arguments will hold up, Brack wrote, according to the outlet.
Eastman has already dropped a lawsuit he brought against the Jan. 6 committee investigating the riot at the Capitol. The former Trump lawyer dropped his efforts to shield the information on his phone from the panel after it made it clear it was only trying to look at his call logs.
Efforts by Eastman to protect documents from investigators and the Jan. 6 committee have not fared well. He fought for months to keep the committee from accessing his emails but lost more than one challenge. Eventually, he turned over thousands of pages of documents.
Eastman played a key role in the effort to try and keep Trump in power after losing the 2020 presidential election. In addition to plotting an effort to send fake electors to Congress, Eastman pressed then-Vice President Mike Pence to exercise his authority and reject votes cast for President Joe Biden and declare Trump the winner of the election.
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During a Jan. 6 committee hearing last month, Eastman acknowledged that his plan for Pence was likely illegal, former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann said. As a result, Eastman asked another former attorney for the president, Rudy Giuliani, if he could “be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works.”
The Jan. 6 committee will hold its next, and possibly final, public hearing on July 21 in prime time.
