Why Donald Trump's former lawyer John Eastman won't flip – The Boston Globe
So far, three lawyers charged in connection with the Georgia election fraud case against former president Donald Trump have pleaded guilty and agreed to turn state’s evidence.
The next one to flip probably won’t be John Eastman. According to Harvey Silverglate, a Boston lawyer who is part of Eastman’s legal team, his client isn’t interested in a deal. “My client has nothing to worry about,” Silverglate said in an interview. “The advice he gave [Trump] was perfectly lawful. We’re preparing for a trial.”
Legal bluster? In Silverglate’s case, probably not. As a recent profile in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly notes, he has never represented a client who flipped and he’s not complimentary about those who do. “I’ve never heard a turned witness who told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” Silverglate, 81, told Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. “The government is very good at teaching witnesses not only how to sing, but how to compose.”
That’s a sentiment Silverglate has held since the 1980s, when he represented Ted Anzalone, a fundraiser and associate of Boston Mayor Kevin White, who was pursued by then-US attorney Bill Weld on extortion, tax-evasion, and money-laundering charges, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to charge White with a crime. After Anzalone won his case on appeal, Silverglate wrote a book on what he sees as a pattern of federal overreach: “Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.” If a client wants to flip, he said he refers them to other lawyers.
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Making the case on behalf of a former Trump lawyer has brought new attention to Silverglate, along with a couple of anonymous phone calls telling him to “drop dead.” But Silverglate, who is known for his defense of free speech as well as unpopular clients, stands by Eastman. He said he agreed to represent Trump’s former lawyer “because he asked me. He has a Sixth Amendment right to counsel.”
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Eastman — a longtime professor at California’s Chapman University Law School, who served as dean from 2007 to 2010 and clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas from 1996 to 1997 — was one of 19 people indicted with Trump for allegedly participating in what prosecutors say was a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. He became famous — or infamous — for writing a memo that laid out ways for former vice president Mike Pence to keep Trump in office.
Trump has said he relied on the advice of his lawyers when he challenged election results. But now, three of his lawyers are pleading guilty to essentially making things up. The latest is Jenna Ellis, who pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. Prosecutors also struck plea deals with Kenneth Chesebro, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to file false documents; and with Sidney Powell, who pushed conspiracy theories about a vote-rigging plot and pleaded guilty to conspiring to interfere with the performance of election duties.
Lawyers “are folding,” said Scott Harshbarger, a Democrat and former attorney general of Massachusetts, because “a criminal prosecutor has finally developed the overwhelming evidence that there was no election fraud; the lawyers lied and engaged in conspiracy to sell the lie at the request of or in conjunction with” their client — Trump. “They are making a deal to save their skin, hoping they can slink away as minor players,” he added.
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That would seem to make it harder for Trump and his codefendants. But according to Silverglate, “It’s not going to make it more difficult for Eastman. It could very well make it more difficult for [former Trump lawyer Rudy] Giuliani. But that assumes the testimony on Eastman is honest.” He said defendants who flip routinely bend their testimony to what a prosecutor wants. His view is of a corrupt, politicized justice system. But Silverglate stands by it. “My faith in the system disappeared a long time ago,” he said.
Silverglate’s willingness to take on unpopular causes and clients is admirable — but his cynicism aligns with Trump’s mission to undermine faith in every political and legal institution. Whether it leads to the right legal advice for Eastman is another question. In an opinion piece Silverglate cowrote with Charles Burnham, the lead attorney on the Eastman case, the two argue that the scenarios that Eastman laid out in his memo about how Trump could retain office might be “cutting edge,” even “creative. But it was all in the realm of good faith legal advice.” There is “nothing criminal about proposing such scenarios — that’s the kind of thing lawyers do all the time,” they contend.
The lawyers who flipped started out with a version of the same argument. But in the end, they decided it wasn’t a winning one.
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Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi.
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