The third hearing is now in the bag, and John Eastman will be the one holding it when all is said and done.
It’s plainly obvious now that Trump, others in his circle and Eastman conspired to subvert the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act. As January 6th came close, Eastman had been told time and time again that the scheme couldn’t work if Pence wasn’t going to take an activist approach to his duties as Senate president. Even Eastman at several junctures was forced to admit it wouldn’t work. Not even a conservative Supreme Court would come to their aid. Especially not a conservative one, as the language of the 12th is clear.
But Eastman admitted, “You know how he gets when he has something in his head,” referring to our mercurial and intransigent former president. So he went along with the whole hullabaloo on January 6th, whipping up the crowd at the Ellipse along with Giuliani, Trump and others to insist on challenging the validity of the election, like they had all been doing since November 4th, regardless of whether or not they knew they had lost.
It’s been said over and over, but this was a coup, executed on multiple levels to create maximum chaos. Bannon and Navarro planned the floor uprising, Eastman and Trump tried to force the vice president to invalidate safe harbored, official ballots, and the Proud Boys and The Oath Keepers led the angry mob to lay waste to the Capitol as Trump tweeted to them that nothing they planned was working. To link these pieces of the plot together will be the DOJ’s most difficult task.
Once the smoke cleared, Eastman asked to be on the pardon list. Interestingly enough, he did not receive one. This can only mean one thing; that Trump is throwing him under the bus for this whole stunt. Trump, as I understand it, does not use email or communications that could be archived to do his business. So perhaps it will be hard to link Eastman and Trump in a plot of seditious conspiracy. However, if these losers don’t want to hang out in a 6×9 cell for the rest of their lives, it might be worth it to roll on El Jefe.