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John Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani asking to be put on the presidential pardon list after January 6, committee reveals

Jun 17, 2022, 03:14 IST
Business Insider
John Eastman appeared onstage with Rudy Giuliani at the pro-Trump rally that preceded the January 6 attack on the Capitol.Jim Bourg/Reuters
  • Conservative lawyer John Eastman sought a presidential pardon after the January 6 Capitol attack.
  • Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani, asking to be put on the presidential pardon list.
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Conservative lawyer John Eastman, a key figure pushing a plan to overturn the 2020 election, asked President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to put him on a presidential pardon list in the days after the January 6 Capitol attack, the House select committee investigating the riot revealed on Thursday.

"I've decided I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works," Eastman wrote in an email to Giuliani, per the committee's findings. Rep. Pete Aguilar, a lawmaker on the January 6 panel, read the email during Thursday's hearing.

Eastman ultimately did not receive a pardon. Later, in his deposition to the committee, Eastman pleaded the Fifth Amendment 100 times, Aguilar said on Thursday.

"I assert my Fifth Amendment right against being compelled to being a witness against myself," Eastman said in his recorded testimony played by the committee.

The pro-Trump lawyer's pardon request and his pleading the Fifth were presented as part of the committee's argument that Eastman knew his pursuit to overturn the election results violated the law.

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Eastman, a former law professor, had been working with Trump's legal team after the 2020 election. He's known for drafting a two-page memo that outlined an effort to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the 2020 election certification on January 6 and throw out electors in key battleground states that Joe Biden won.

Greg Jacob, Pence's lawyer, testified before the January 6 committee on Thursday that Eastman told Trump two days before January 6 that the plan was illegal. Despite this, Trump continued to pressure Pence on January 6 to subvert the Constitution and reject the election certification.

Besides Eastman, several other Trump officials, including then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, knew that Pence could not unilaterally throw out electoral votes, the committee revealed.

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