John Eastman masterminded the alternate elector scheme to keep the former president in power. Colorado Republicans don’t seem to care
The Colorado Republican Party is trying to prevent unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in the party’s primary elections, part of an effort to claw their way back to relevance in the state.
The state GOP filed a lawsuit on Monday and has tapped John Eastman to help represent the party. Eastman, you may remember, was one of the primary architects of the alternate elector scheme Trump and his allies tried to employ overturn the 2020 election results. He is also one of the six co-conspirators listed in the Justice Department’s new indictment of the former president for the scheme. The indictment describes him as having “devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.”
The lawsuit alleges that last year’s GOP primaries for governor, secretary of state, and U.S. Senate may have turned out differently if unaffiliated voters weren’t allowed to cast ballots along with registered Republicans. Colorado’s governor, secretary of state, and both U.S. senators are currently Democrats.
Eastman has been in plenty of legal trouble since working to overturn President Biden’s win. He could very well be indicted in the Justice Department’s probe, and he’s currently facing nearly a dozen disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California, and could lose his ability to practice law in the state.
Eastman was well aware that his plot to steal the election was illegal. The House Jan. 6 Committee obtained testimony that Eastman even explained in front of Trump that the scheme violated the Electoral Count Act. Rolling Stone reported earlier this week that part of Trump’s strategy to escape accountability may to be shovel blame onto his lawyers, including Eastman.
“It is an argument the [former] president likes, and the team is on board with it,” said one Trump adviser, adding: “John [Eastman] and Rudy [Giuliani] gave a lot of counsel … Other people can decide how sound it was.”
Source link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/john-eastman-colorado-gop-election-rules-1234800250/