Trump attorney who told John Eastman to get a 'great criminal defense lawyer' gets Jan. 6 grand jury subpoena

Eric Herschmann, the former Trump administration attorney who told fellow attorney John Eastman to get "a great effing criminal defense lawyer," will soon be testifying in a criminal probe.

Politico's Betsy Woodruff Swan reports that Herschmann has "received a grand jury subpoena as part of the Jan. 6 probe" that's being conducted by the United States Department of Justice.

Although Herschmann defended Trump during his first impeachment trial and then joined the White House as a legal advisor, he found himself in conflict after the 2020 election with lawyers Eastman and Jeffrey Clark as they pushed to get the United States Department of Justice involved in overturning Trump's election loss to President Joe Biden.

"During the tumultuous final weeks of Trump’s term, Herschmann clashed with other aides and advisers who pushed the defeated president to fight the election results. He was also present for many of the most consequential meetings in that period of time," notes Politico's report. "Among them was a high-stakes meeting where most of the Trump Justice Department’s top brass threatened to resign rather than work under a colleague who wanted to advance spurious claims of widespread voter fraud."

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At its third public hearing into the January 6, 2021 insurrection, House committee probing last year's attack on the US Capitol detailed a "relentless" pressure campaign by Trump on Pence -- as cornerstone of a criminal conspiracy to keep the defeated president in power.

"Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no other vice president has ever done: the former president wanted Pence to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be counted again," panel chairman Bennie Thompson said.

"Mike Pence said no. He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal. He knew it was wrong."

Eastman was the architect of the "nonsensical" plot, said committee vice-chair Liz Cheney, pushing the scheme aggressively despite knowing it to be unlawful.

The committee showed testimony from Pence's general counsel Greg Jacob saying Eastman admitted in front of Trump two days before the riot that his plan would violate federal law.

With additional reporting by AFP