John Eastman

John Charles Eastman (born 1960) is an American legal scholar and disbarred lawyer. Eastman became widely known after the 2020 United States presidential election, when he advised then-President Donald Trump. He wrote legal memos arguing that Vice President Mike Pence could reject or delay certification of certain electoral votes, for which he has been disbarred by the state of California from practicing law.

Eastman is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public-interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. He is a former professor and former dean at Chapman University School of Law. He was the Republican nominee for California's 34th congressional district in 1990, and a candidate for California Attorney General in 2010. He is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

During President Donald Trump's last efforts to block the certification of Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, Eastman told Vice President Mike Pence on January 5, 2021, that Pence had the constitutional authority to block the certification. Pence did not accept Eastman's argument. Eastman also sent Republican senator Mike Lee a six-point plan of action for Pence to throw out the electors from seven states to keep Trump in power, which Lee rejected. On January 6, 2021, Eastman spoke at the White House Trump rally preceding the 2021 United States Capitol attack. He retired a week later from the Chapman faculty after controversy surrounding his speech.

In addition to his disbarment, John Eastman has faced multiple legal and professional consequences related to efforts to challenge the 2020 election. In March 2022, federal judge David O. Carter found it “more likely than not” that Eastman and Trump had engaged in a plan to obstruct the certification of the election. The United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack later recommended he, along with Trump and potentially others, be charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. In 2023, Eastman was one of the six alleged co-conspirators listed in the Justice Department's federal indictment of Trump. Eastman was subsequently indicted in state-level election interference cases, including a 2023 Georgia racketeering prosecution and a 2024 Arizona fake electors prosecution, both arising from efforts to challenge the 2020 election.

In November 2025, Trump issued a federal pardon covering Eastman in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 election, although no federal charges had been made.