A federal magistrate in Santa Ana has ruled that former President Donald Trump "possibly" tried to invalidate the election and conspired with a former local professor, John Eastman, who was a Trump campaign adviser.
Magistrate David Carter reviewed more than a hundred emails from Eastman dated Jan.4 and 7, 2021.
The petition from the congressional committee investigating the Jan.6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill wanted about 30,000 of Eastman's emails sent and received between those dates reviewed, but the attorney sued to stop it.
The judge focused on reviewing 111 emails. Based on that review, he concluded that "President Trump attempted to obstruct official proceedings by launching a pressure campaign to convince Vice President Pence to adjourn the Joint Session (of Congress) on January 6."
As for the professor, "based on these repeated meetings and statements, the evidence shows that an agreement to enact the vote count plan likely existed between President Trump and Professor Eastman."
But Eastman "was aware that his plan violated the Electoral County Law," Judge Carter ruled in a 40-page brief.
Eastman was a professor at Chapman University. After he participated in Trump's rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, teachers and students at that university demanded that he leave his post.
In addition to investigating possible criminal action by the congressional committee, Eastman also faces an investigation by an ethics committee of the California Bar Association because the professor collaborated to annul the electoral results in court.
