Judge's 'astonishing' ruling shows 'an ongoing course of criminality' between Trump and Eastman: legal analyst

MSNBC analyst and University of Alabama School of Law professor Joyce Vance on Thursday argued that a recent decision by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter marks an unprecedented step toward holding former President Donald Trump legally accountable for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots.

In a Twitter thread, Vance argued that Carter's "astonishing" ruling showed that there was "an ongoing course of criminality" conducted by both Trump and attorney John Eastman.

"Trump signed a verification to the [federal] lawsuit attesting that the information in it was correct to the best of his knowledge," Vance writes, summarizing Judge Carter's findings after reading through Eastman's emails. "That’s serious, because before the federal case was filed, Eastman communicated that the numbers were made up junk."

In other words, if Trump were told that his claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election were false but he insisted on keeping them in a lawsuit aimed at delaying the certification of the results, that could go a long way toward proving the former president knowingly attempted to defraud the United States.

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Vance also argued that Carter "could have gone farther" in his "careful and deliberate" ruling on the emails, but she nonetheless concluded that it will be "deeply damaging to Trump."