Trump lawyer John Eastman's employer argues he didn't explicitly ask Pence to overturn the election

John Eastman
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The conservative Claremont Institute said Monday that it was breaking from tradition to publicly defend John Eastman, one of its senior fellows, from "a recent combined disinformation, de-platforming, and ostracism campaign" based on legal advice he gave to former President Donald Trump, his client, and former Vice President Mike Pence "at a critical stage during the 2020 elections in December 2020 and January 2021."

What Eastman advised isn't up for debate — you can read the two-page memo and a longer six-page one he wrote about steps Pence could take to not certify President Biden's electoral victory in a Jan. 6 joint session of Congress. But the Claremont Institute asserts that his advice "has since been maliciously misrepresented and distorted" by the media, and that "contrary to almost universally false news accounts, which have done great damage, John did not ask the vice president ... to 'overturn' the election or to decide the validity of electoral votes."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.