EXCLUSIVE: Former Trump attorney John Eastman warned that “freedom of speech” is “gone” in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday night.
Former President Trump, Eastman, and 17 others were charged out of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
GEORGIA INDICTMENT: 2 TRUMP CO-DEFENDANTS BOOKED IN FULTON COUNTY JAIL
“We did nothing wrong,” Eastman told Ingraham in a multi-part interview. Part one of the interview will air at 7:00 p.m. ET Tuesday on the “Ingraham Angle” on Fox News Channel.
“We were challenging the election for what even Vice President Pence described as serious allegations of fraud and numerous instances of officials violating state law,” Eastman said. “And if we can’t speak out about that, then our freedom of speech, our right to petition the government for redress of grievances are gone.”
Eastman was charged with nine counts of crimes, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit forgery, and filing false documents. He turned himself in to the Fulton County Jail last week and accepted a bond of $100,000.
TRUMP SAYS GEORGIA INDICTMENT COMES DURING ‘DARK PERIOD’ FOR US, VOWS TO FIX IT BY WINNING
Eastman, a former dean of Chapman University law school in Southern California, is facing charges related to his advice to Trump on how the former president could overturn the 2020 election.
Eastman has slammed the indictment for targeting attorneys for “zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients,” and said each defendant should be entitled to rely on the advice of lawyers and past legal precedent.
“The people that I was representing had a right to counsel,” Eastman told Ingraham. “And what’s going on here with the bar complaint against everybody involved in any of the litigation, this Fulton County complaint, the unindicted coconspirators in the federal action, they’re trying to stifle people from being able to get representation in election challenges.”
TRUMP BOOKED AT FULTON COUNTY JAIL AFTER CHARGES STEMMING FROM 2020 ELECTION PROBE
He added: “They’ve made that very clear that that’s what they’re up to, and we can’t allow it to happen.”
Eastman said that if “disputed questions of constitutional law all of a sudden become criminal, we could throw the entire legal profession, the entire legal academy in jail.”
“The fact of the matter is, throughout our history, significant leaders in Congress have argued that Congress doesn’t have authority under the 12th Amendment, that the founders specifically designed it that way so that the president wouldn’t owe his job to Congress,” Eastman explained, adding that it is “a core separation of powers principle that the founders adopted.”
Trump was charged with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act, three counts of criminal solicitation, six counts of criminal conspiracy, one count of filing false documents and two counts of making false statements.
Trump has been indicted four times, making him the first president in United States history to face criminal charges.
Willis and Fulton County prosecutors charged Trump’s senior political aides.
MEADOWS, GIULIANI, OTHERS INDICTED ALONG WITH TRUMP IN GEORGIA 2020 ELECTION INTERFERENCE PROBE
In addition to Eastman, former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and top attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jeff Clark, were charged out of the investigation.
Others indicted include: Georgia lawyer Robert Cheeley, former campaign strategist Michael Roman, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party David Shafer, publicist Trevian Kutti, former Georgia elections supervisor Misty Hampton Hayes, the VP of Black Conservative Federation Harrison William Prescott Floyd, Stephen Lee, former Georgia GOP official Cathleen Alston Latham, Shawn Micah Tresher Still, Scott Graham Hall, and Ray Stallings Smith III.
All of the defendants face at least one count of violating the Georgia RICO Act—the Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act.
Other charges the defendants are facing include Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Impersonating a Public Officer; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Conspiracy to Commit False Statements and Writings; Conspiracy to Commit Filing False Documents; Conspiracy to Commit Forgery in the First Degree; Filing False Documents; and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a Public Officer.
Separately, in his investigation into alleged election interference, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In the indictment, Smith describes six “co-conspirators,” but those co-conspirators have not yet been charged, and it is unclear if they will be. John Eastman, Giuliani, Powell, Clark, and Chesebro have been identified as co-conspirators. The sixth co-conspirator is unknown.
