Trump-linked lawyer John Eastman voluntarily dropped a lawsuit against the House select Jan. 6 committee aimed at shielding his phone records from the panel.
The move on Tuesday night to dispense with the lawsuit came after the Jan. 6 committee made clear that it was only interested in his call logs and would not pursue the content of any of his phone communications from his carrier Verizon.
TRUMP-LINKED LAWYER JOHN EASTMAN SLAMS DOJ IN TUCKER CARLSON APPEARANCE
“Plaintiff brought this lawsuit primarily to protect the content of his communications, many of which are privileged,” the stipulation of voluntary dismissal filing said. “The Congressional Defendants represented in their motion to dismiss that they were not seeking the content of any of Plaintiff’s communications via the subpoena they had issued to Defendant Verizon.”
Eastman first sued to block the Jan. 6 committee to hinder its subpoena of Verizon for his phone records last year. Court documents at the time indicated the committee was after information about whom he called or texted, but not the contents of the calls.
Still, Eastman raised concerns about attorney-client privileges at the time and had asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to quash the subpoena.
“Without prior notice to Dr. Eastman, the J6 Committee issued a subpoena to Verizon requesting records for Dr. Eastman’s personal cell phone. The subpoena seeks nine categories of information on Dr. Eastman’s personal cell phone use over a three-month period. The subpoena does not contain any provision for protection of attorney-client privilege,” he wrote in a complaint filed last December.
Eastman has been embroiled in a number of court battles with the Jan. 6 committee over records requests. He spent months trying to stymie a subpoena for his emails but was ultimately ordered by a court to review and turn over thousands of pages worth of emails to the panel.
Eastman helped formulate legal strategies by which then-President Donald Trump could challenge the results of the 2020 election, which is why the committee has sought documents from him.
Last week, federal agents “frisked” Eastman and seized his phone while he was exiting a restaurant in New Mexico. A reason for the search is not immediately clear, but the Justice Department has reportedly been investigating the events surrounding the Capitol riots, including an alternative electors scheme to challenge the election for which Eastman advocated.
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Eastman has decried the search and seizure as “invalid on its face” and filed a lawsuit to retrieve his cellphone from law enforcement and block authorities from accessing it.
