John Eastman
LOS ANGELES — John Eastman, the former attorney for President Trump, will challenge an order disbarring him through a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in the wake of California’s high court affirming that Eastman should be ousted from the legal profession for ethical lapses.
The California Supreme Court on April 15 denied Eastman’s petitions for review of a disbarment recommendation issued last year by the State Bar Court. That recommendation concluded the attorney was culpable for 10 counts relating to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
But Eastman attorney Randall A. Miller of Miller Waxler LLP in Los Angeles disputed the state Supreme Court’s conclusion, saying that the attorney’s free-speech rights were disregarded.
“The California Supreme Court has allowed to stand a State Bar Court recommendation that we contend departs from long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent protecting First Amendment rights, especially in the attorney discipline context,” Miller said in an email to the Southern California Record. “We disagree with that outcome and believe it raises pivotal constitutional concerns regarding the limits of state regulation of attorney speech.”
In turn, he said that Eastman’s legal team will seek a review of the case by the U.S. Supreme Court in order to “repudiate this threat to the rule of law and our nation’s adversarial system of justice.”
The state Supreme Court’s decision also calls on Eastman to pay monetary sanctions of $5,000 to the California Client Security Fund, as well as costs of the State Bar investigation into violations of the Business and Professions Code.
The State Bar’s chief trial counsel, George Cardona, said the high court’s decision reaffirms fundamental legal principles that attorneys must act honestly and uphold the rule of law.
“After extensive proceedings before the State Bar Court’s Hearing and Review Departments, both of which found Mr. Eastman culpable of serious ethical violations, the court has imposed the discipline warranted by the clear and convincing evidence that he advanced false claims about the 2020 presidential election to mislead courts, public officials and the American public,” Cardona said in a prepared statement.
A June 2025 decision by the State Bar Court’s Review Department concluded that in the wake of the 2020 vote, Eastman engaged in a campaign to falsely undermine the election results and that he lied to several courts, Vice President Mike Pence and the American people.
Although the State Bar found Eastman had a discipline-free record of practicing law, good character and had been cooperative in the investigation, the bar found that his conduct in the wake of the 2020 election breached basic ethical duties and was characterized by multiple offenses and indifference.
Among the counts against him were seeking to mislead the U.S. Supreme Court, misleading a U.S. district judge, and advocating a questionable theory that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 was unconstitutional and that Pence had unilateral authority to resolve disputes over electoral votes cast for president.
The States United Democracy Center applauded the state Supreme Court’s decision.
“This decision is part of a broader reckoning for those who seek to undermine the rule of law in this country,” Christine P. Sun, the center’s senior vice president of legal, said in a prepared statement. “While Trump tries to consolidate power, the states and courts continue to successfully check executive overreach and the unlawful actions of his administration.”
