Trump's 'coup lawyer' smacked down by federal court

On Friday, POLITICO reported that a federal court has rejected Trump-allied lawyer John Eastman's bid to force the FBI to return his phone from a search.

The ruling, issued by George W. Bush-appointed Senior Judge Robert Brack in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, found that Eastman was improperly citing federal rules on when seized property can be returned from criminal investigators.

"Eastman ... argues that the language of the rule allows an individual to move for the return of property if they are 'aggrieved' either 'by an unlawful search and seizure of property or by the deprivation of property,'" wrote Brack. "Eastman’s motion rests on the proposition that he can demonstrate irreparable injury solely on the basis that he was aggrieved by an unlawful seizure of his phone," but "He does not cite binding authority to support his reading of the rule ... The Court finds that the history of the rule and binding Tenth Circuit authority are fatal to his position."

The Justice Department first obtained warrants for Eastman's phone in late August, as part of the investigation into the efforts by former President Donald Trump's allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The same judge has already dismissed another complaint by Eastman arguing the warrant did not cover the seizure of his phone.

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In addition to the federal investigation, Eastman has been called to testify in another criminal election investigation in Georgia, and faces professional discipline, with a bar complaint against him at the Supreme Court and an ethics investigation in California.

Eastman was the author of the infamous memo outlining a plan to execute a coup to stop President Joe Biden's win from being certified, involving the declaration of fake Trump electors in swing states Biden won, and then-Vice President Mike Pence using those fake electors as a pretext to disqualify the real ones. Legal experts broadly believe Eastman's plan was not a valid legal interpretation of the Electoral Count Act, with Pence rejecting it and even Eastman himself admitting it was baseless.