Trump memo drafter claims executive privilege over 11,000 documents sought by Jan. 6 panel

[mystery-ak]

Trump memo drafter claims executive privilege over 11,000 documents sought by Jan. 6 panel
By Rebecca Beitsch - 02/14/22 12:55 PM EST

The drafter of two memos to the Trump campaign outlining a strategy for denying President Biden’s election victory is seeking to withhold more than 11,000 pages of his emails from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

John Eastman, a Chapman University professor who was subpoenaed by the panel in November, said in a Sunday filing he completed a court-ordered review of roughly half his email trove, some 46,000 pages, and found those emails should be covered by attorney-client privilege.

Eastman advised the Trump campaign both to use invented vice presidential authority to push back on election results and to get state legislatures to reject electors from certain states in order to deny President Biden a majority of the Electoral College vote.


Those memos became a blueprint for the Trump team in eyeing Congress and the states as avenues for unwinding the election, likely igniting Trump’s focus on having former Vice President Mike Pence buck the ceremonial duty of certifying the 2020 election results.

A judge ordered Eastman to review 1,500 pages of his emails per day after Eastman sued the committee in an effort to broadly block its access to his communications, which include more than 94,000 emails.

more
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/594138-eastman-claims-executive-privilege-over-11000-documents-sought-by

[Cyber Liberty]

When I saw the words "Trump memo drafter" I knew the source of this dross.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Lawyer-client privilege does not apply to criminal conspiracies.

Executive privilege extends to official members of the Executive Branch and covers official Executive Branch business ... not private attorneys providing shoddy, and possibly criminal counsel to a member of the US Government, and not in the capacity of acting as a defense attorney in a legal matter before a court of law.

Was Eastman Donald Trump's personal attorney providing legal counsel germaine to a current court proceeding?

Was Eastman an Executive Branch employee, on the Federal payroll, providing counsel to the President in an official capacity?

Executive Privilege may not extend to political campaign matters.

If the effort to challenge the slates of electors were on behalf of his re-election campaign, that is not official Executive funciton nor activity.  This could also make Trump liable for violating the Hatch Act by using official Federal Government resources for his personal political campaign activity.