Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance says a federal judge's ruling shows "an ongoing course of criminality" by a "then-sitting president of the United States," Donald Trump.
Vance, also a professor of law, podcast host, and well-known MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst, is praising the "careful," "deliberate," and "measured" approach of a federal judge who on Wednesday ordered "coup memo" author John Eastman, a disgraced former law professor and current chairman of the far-right National Organization For Marriage, to hand over emails to the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
"Yesterday's opinion from Judge Carter ordering some of John Eastman's emails turned over to J6C was careful & deliberate. It’s the measured approach that’s so compelling here. He could have gone further, but he didn’t & the emails Congress gets are deeply damaging to Trump," Vance tweeted on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter did not accept Eastman's claim of attorney client privilege, citing the "crime-fraud exception" which states there can be no privilege if the communications were in furtherance of a crime.
Judge Carter also found that Donald Trump knowingly signed legal court documents that he knew contained false information, specifically false claims of voter fraud.
Vance says, "it’s an astonishing conclusion to reach regarding a then-sitting president of the United States. It shows an ongoing course of criminality, not an inquiry that was quickly abandoned."
Politico had reported that in emails Eastman stated that Trump had already made fraudulent claims, and before the time of the email had been informed the claims were false, but the then-president and his attorneys decided to push ahead and file the knowingly-false claims in court.
"Trump signed a verification to the fed'l lawsuit attesting that the information in it was correct to the best of his knowledge. That’s serious, because before the federal case was filed, Eastman communicated that the numbers were made up junk," Vance added.
In her Substack newsletter Vance calls Judge Carter's ruling "highly significant."
She adds: "Judge Carter found in earlier proceedings that Trump had, more likely than not been involved in [a] plan to obstruct Congress’s official proceedings to confirm the electoral college vote on January 6, 2021," and a "conspiracy to defraud the United States."