Ex-Trump lawyer's own attorney outlines next move in Georgia case

An attorney indicted last week in the Georgia election interference case will move to have his case severed from the rest of his 19 co-defendants including former President Donald Trump, his attorney said Thursday.

Harvey Silverglate, an attorney representing John Eastman, said during an appearance on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that his client is in a “different position” than the rest of the co-defendants and not part of a conspiracy, “assuming there even was” one.

Silverglate’s comments came in response to a question from Tapper, who noted that fellow co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro on Thursday asked for a speedy trial.

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“Do you personally want this trial to happen sooner or later?” Tapper asked.

“Well, let me tell you what we're gonna do,” Silverglate said. “Eastman is in a very different position from every other defendant in that he was acting as a lawyer giving legal advice, and is not part of a conspiracy, assuming there even was a conspiracy. We are going to move to sever his case and move for a separate trial which is going to be tried alone, and we believe that the trial of Eastman alone will take about three weeks."

“It's a very simple case, we expect to win it in three weeks and we'd like to have a speedy trial, that is, we'd like it tried right away. It will take three weeks and the whole night there will be over for him. That's what we're gonna do.”

Tapper noted that “One of the allegations made by District Attorney Fani Willis, and for our audience that we should remind everyone that individuals are innocent until proven guilty, but one of the allegations is that your client knew that information he and Donald Trump were submitting in 2021, I believe September 2021, in a lawsuit alleging malfeasance in Georgia that Mr. Eastman knew that the information was false in the sworn document."

“What is your response to that?” Tapper asked.

Silverglate replied that “Eastman was coming up with all kinds of theories that were very different, very new, very cutting edge, and was tossing them out. I want to point out something, Eastman didn't bribe anybody, he didn't threaten anybody. He threw out legal theories that were, it turned out wrong, but at the time, they were perfectly…that's the job of a lawyer, throw out all kinds of cutting-edge theories, try and see what flies. He did not bribe anybody, he did not commit perjury."

“His defense will be he acted as lawyers have been acting for hundreds of years and did nothing criminal.”

Watch the video below or at the link.

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