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CHAPTER 5
- involving Mark Meadows, Rudolph Giuliani's legal team, and Members of Congress in late November or early December); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman023534 (December 5, 2020 email from John Eastman remarking that "folks at the top of the chain of command on this . . . are now aware of the issues"). See also Michael Wolff, Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2021), p. 135 (describing post-Thanksgiving outreach from Boris Epshteyn to the White House regarding the Vice President theory).
- Order Re Privilege of Documents Dated January 4-7, 2021 at 41-42, Eastman v. Thompson et al., 594 F. Supp. 3d 1156, (C.D. Cal. Mar. 28, 2022) (No. 8:22-cv-99-DOC-DFM) (“Because the memo likely furthered the crimes of obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, it is subject to the crime-fraud exception and the Court ORDERS it to be disclosed.”).
- The Select Committee’s investigation found that Eastman was communicating about the joint session with Kenneth Chesebro in December 2020. See e.g., Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053460, Chapman053475 (December 23, 2020, emails between John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, and Boris Epshteyn regarding procedural proposals for joint session).
- Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman052976. This memo was originally obtained by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Robert Costa and subsequently published by CNN. “READ: Trump Lawyer’s Memo on Six-Step Plan for Pence to Overturn the Election,” CNN, (Sept. 21, 2021), available at https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/read-eastman-memo/index.html.
- Under the Constitution, if no candidate receives a majority of electoral college votes, this triggers a process where the House of Representatives decides the president. When that happens, each State gets one vote for President, chosen by the Representatives from that state. The candidate who receives a majority of the 50 State votes becomes the president. At the time, there were more Republicans than Democrats in 26 of the 50 State House delegations, leading Eastman to predict that “President Trump [would be] re-elected” under that scenario. See Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman052976.
- Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman052976. Note that Eastman has acknowledged the authenticity of a publicly disclosed version of this document, describing it as “a preliminary, incomplete draft” of “the legal memo [he] wrote in January.” John C. Eastman, “Trying to Prevent Illegal Conduct from Deciding an Election Is Not Endorsing a ‘Coup’,” American Greatness, (Sept. 30, 2021), available at https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/30/trying-to-prevent-illegal-conduct-from-deciding-anelection-is-not-endorsing-a-coup/ (linking to two-page document titled “PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL, January 6 scenario, available at http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2021/images/09/20/eastman.memo.pdf).
- Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Chapman University Production), Chapman053561 (December 23, 2020, email from John Eastman to Molly Michael).
- Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, (Verizon Production, July 11, 2022) (Dec. 23, 2020 cellular data records from John Eastman). The morning that Eastman began preparing the memo, he received a call from Boris Epshteyn at 8:58 am. Eleven minutes later, Eastman called Chesebro, and the two spoke for over 41 minutes. Eastman continued to trade calls with Epshteyn and Chesebro throughout the day. See Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, (Verizon Production, July 11, 2022) (December 23, 2020, phone records for John Eastman)
