- A judge ruled that the commission could see 159 new emails from one of Trump’s lawyers as of Jan. 6.
- They show how lawyers feared losing the legitimate legal challenge of certifying the 2020 elections.
- “Instead, they launched a political campaign to disrupt the election count,” the judge said.
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An email from one of Trump’s lawyers said they had decided not to go to court challenging the certification process for the 2020 election in court, fearing the consequences of the loss.
Failure would “drop” their plan to disrupt the census politically, new court documents describing the email said.
U.S. District Court Judge David Carter discussed the email in a ruling that one of Trump’s post-election attorneys, Dr. John Eastman, must reveal a cash of 159 messages.
One of them may be evidence of a crime, Carter writes.
After the election, Eastman helped draft Trump’s efforts to call off the election, eventually writing a scandalous note calling on then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to accept election certificates on Jan. 6, according to Insider’s C. Ryan Barber.
In March 2022, Carter, a judge, concluded that Trump and Eastman “more likely than not” tried to illegally obstruct Congress in a criminal conspiracy, Politico reported.
Since then, Eastman has claimed various forms of privilege in an attempt to avoid releasing tens of thousands of related documents before a committee on January 6 in the US House of Representatives.
In a decision Tuesday seen by Insider, Carter discussed the 159 emails and why they should be revealed.
This gave an idea of how Eastman’s group came up with the strategy – and how, Carter said, they believe they have “almost zero chance of success in the District of Columbia” with “certain election cases”.
This was in a set of four emails that cited January 6 as the deadline for filing lawsuits, which Carter said allowed them to remain hidden from the public.
But an additional email of December 22, 2020, linked these discussions to what an unnamed lawyer called the “January 6 strategy.” As it relates to a potential crime, he can be released, Carter writes.
“This email is considering whether to file a lawsuit to resolve the interpretation of the Census Act and potentially risk the court finding that the law binds Vice President Pence,” Carter wrote.
By “linking”, Carter means that the court can say unequivocally that Pence is unable to reject the election results of the states at the January 6 hearing, which is exactly what Trump and his allies hoped Pence would be able to to do.
“As the lawyer concluded that a negative court decision would” hit the strategy of January 6, [the attorney] encourage the legal team to avoid the courts.
“This e-mail confirmed the direction of the January 6 plan. Trump’s legal team chose not to sue – instead they continued their political campaign to disrupt the election count.
“Lawyers are free not to sue; they are not free to evade judicial scrutiny to overturn democratic elections.”
Carter’s list of emails also reveals the depth of Eastman’s efforts to persuade the state to nominate alternative voters, which goes beyond Pence’s pressure and “targets every level of federal and state elected officials,” Carter said.
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