(CNN)A federal judge pelted former Donald Trump attorney John Eastman with harsh questions about his subpoenaed emails at a court hearing on Tuesday, indicating he is skeptical of Eastman’s claims that the emails were not sent to the House Inquiry Committee on Tuesday 6. are protected by attorney-client privilege.
Judge David Carter challenged Eastman’s privilege claims with sharp questions that echoed some of the arguments put forward by House attorneys.
These questions included: Where is the line between legal advice and political strategy? What legal battle was Eastman advising Trump on when he sent the emails? And Eastman didn’t try to sidestep the courts by pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to take unilateral action on Jan. 6, 2021.
Carter of the Central District of California didn’t make a decision during Tuesday’s virtual hearing, and it’s unclear when he will announce his decision on his emails in question, which are a subset of messages dated around Jan. 6 acts. Eastman has produced some emails for the committee, just not the emails he claims are privileged.
Also during the hearing, the select committee’s attorney made it clear that the panel believes former President Trump committed crimes in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
House Chief Attorney Doug Letter stressed the language of the House Committee from an explosive court filing last week that said the panel believed Trump and Eastman were part of a “criminal conspiracy,” and that’s why Eastman could read his emails don’t shield with a lawyer -customer privilege.
“Trump ignored all the very clear evidence because he wanted something else. He wanted the vice president to do something that was clearly unconstitutional,” Letter said, describing Trump as the key player.
The letter referred to the hope shared by Trump and Eastman that Pence would throw the election to Trump while he was presiding over the electoral college process on Jan. 6 last year. The letter cited an email in which Eastman said Pence should commit a “minor” violation of the Electoral Count Act, which governs the transfer of power and how Congress counts electoral votes.
“I don’t see how this could be a ‘minor’ violation of the law when we’re talking about a riot that sadly would have been very close to success,” Letter said. “…It would have been so ‘minor’ that it could have changed the entire course of our democracy. It could have meant that the popularly elected President of the United States would have been prevented from taking office.”
Neither Trump nor Eastman have been charged with any crimes. Despite the records of the House of Representatives, lawmakers are not prosecutors and cannot bring charges. And there is no public indication that the Justice Department is seriously investigating their attempt to undermine the 2020 election.
Eastman’s attorney Charles Burnham argued that the House of Representatives had shown no “criminal intent” and that its allegations of alleged crimes were so weak that the judge simply had to dismiss them outright. The House of Representatives’ allegations of alleged crimes are secondary to the main legal arguments surrounding Eastman’s emails, and the judge may sidestep this issue in his final decision.
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