Testimony continued Friday in the State Bar of California’s effort to disbar former Chapman University Law School Dean John Eastman, a one-time adviser to Donald Trump.
A day after officials in Arizona and Pennsylvania testified there was little to no fraud in the 2020 presidential election, a Nevada official told a hearing officer that the most prevalent issue for his office was attempts to vote twice and nearly all of those efforts were squelched.
The hearing is expected now to continue far longer than scheduled. Attorneys discussed continuing through the third week of August. More testimony is expected next week, Tuesday through Friday.
Eastman’s attorney, Randy Miller, said in the opening statement of the hearing on Tuesday that the case was about whether his client’s legal theories were “tenable,” whether he was protected by free speech rights federally and in California, and whether he had the right to petition for redress of grievances.
State bar officials are seeking to have Eastman disbarred for touting “baseless legal theories” to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president.
One issue the attorneys discussed on Friday was how Eastman will be questioned regarding the recruitment of alternate slates of electors, but Miller argued that the line of inquiry could conflict with Eastman’s attorney-client privilege.
In the hearing’s first week, election officials from three states shed light on how they attempted to address allegations of fraud by scores of Trump backers – some based on conspiracy theories – while facing increasing harassment that led to new laws.
Mark Wlaschin, Nevada’s deputy secretary of state for elections, said post-election audits showed “some individuals who attempted to vote twice and some individuals who demonstrated poor judgment and lack of integrity, but, frankly, it was less than 200 individuals referred for investigation.”
There were “some individuals who we identified … who appeared to have been deceased … but it was less than 50,” Wlaschin said at the hearing held in the State Bar of California’s office in downtown Los Angeles.
Barbara Cegavske, who was secretary of state in 2020, a “lifelong Republican,” sent out multiple public statements after the election attempting to address a variety of conspiracy theories, Wlaschin said.
“We had hoped that after canvassing was complete everyone would recognize we were following the law, the disinformation would taper off, but it simply did not,” Wlaschin said. “We had to continue our efforts to put something out there.”
Election officials even shared footage on YouTube of largely routine canvassing of votes, he said.
Of the 17 counties in the state, 15 used Dominion election machines, which Trump representatives had criticized.
Wlaschin said election officials started fielding calls about “vote flipping” and “invisible modems” on machines.
“The secretary and I were getting these questions – what are we doing to prevent Italian satellites from switching votes,” Wlaschin said.
“Instead of issuing a 40- or 50-page document addressing each one of these ridiculous allegations we decided to just say the myth is they switch votes, the reality is they do not switch votes,” Wlaschin said.
In the past, elections officials would get about 30 to 50 complaints, but now they were dealing with hundreds, Wlaschin said.
“Less than five ever went to prosecution,” he added.
Many callers demanded that election officials “decertify” the results, but Wlaschin would have to answer that there was nothing in the law to authorize that.
“I would tell them if you think the wrong person got elected there’s something you can do – it’s what we call a recall election,” he said. “And you don’t even have to have a reason. Nevada law is very permissive in that regard and I will guide you in that.”
Wlaschin said “the bottom line is there was no widespread fraud.”
But, he added, “Every one of these allegations we took seriously. We didn’t throw it out or toss it in a corner. If there was an allegation we’d ask why is there an allegation, let’s get to the nugget of truth somewhere and why would they think it was a possibility.”
Wlaschin said he had the “utmost confidence that the election was free and fair.”
Miller asked Wlaschin if the legislature approved any laws in response to election fraud claims he said they increased funding to counter disinformation.
“Historically we had not asked for money for outreach – we truly had a zero-dollar budget for that, but we asked for $877,000,” Wlaschin said. “We were recognizing that we need to get ahead and explain the truth about how elections are conducted.”
A public information officer was hired to focus on educating residents about elections.
“The idea is that voters can focus on the candidates and not necessarily worry about invisible modems or Italian space lasers changing their votes,” Wlaschin said.
Also, the legislature created a new felony for threatening or harassing an election official, Wlaschin said.
He also explained how there has been an “exodus” of election officials throughout the state and country due to the harassment.
“We continue to receive questions and concerns,” he said. “It is now widespread and assumed that there were irregularities in elections across the country … It’s a steep uphill climb to regain the confidence from voters because in many cases they were convinced the 2020 election cycle had fraud that wasn’t there.”
Eastman, who retired under pressure from Chapman University in Orange County, drafted legal memos suggesting that then-Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to accept electoral votes from several swing states when Congress convened to certify the 2020 vote count. Pence refused.
Eastman also represented Trump before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to invalidate votes in four states where Trump had falsely claimed evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The attorney repeated many of those claims at a rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, after which a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
– City News Service