Eastman’s current bar proceedings are the first to count the newly filed fraud charges in Fulton County, Ga., against Donald Trump and 18 of his associates, including Eastman. It’s an early sign of a tangle of criminal and civil actions that have entangled Trump and his allies, and could continue to collide as the calendar flips to 2024.
Eastman sought to postpone the rest of his trial before he arrived in Georgia, worried he would be indicted by special counsel Jack Smith, who described Eastman as one of Trump’s co-conspirators in a criminal indictment unsealed on August 3. But Smith has so far accused no one but Trump of planning to derail the transition.
Carling warned that the Fulton County case “could take years to resolve, especially given the number of co-defendants.” Postponing the remainder of Eastman’s trial for too long could result in the loss of key evidence and significantly damage the State Bar’s case against him, he said.
If Judge Yvette Rowland sided with Eastman in the case, Carling asked that the State Bar be allowed to present all remaining evidence, excluding Eastman’s continued testimony.
But he urged Rowland not to delay further, arguing that “public safety strongly favors a timely completion of the investigation.”
“The State Bar has presented extensive evidence supporting … the allegations [Eastman] engaged in acts of dishonesty and moral turpitude in matters related to the peaceful transition of power in 2020,” he wrote. “[Eastman] He has consistently denied these allegations, in court and in public statements, that the 2020 election was rigged and that his actions in supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were justified and valid.
“The public interest,” he said, “weighs heavily [the] These competing positions must be resolved as quickly as possible.”
