One ex-Trump lawyer seems to be 'auditioning for an insanity defense': expert
Former President Donald Trump's legal strategist John Eastman's new response to being indicted in the Georgia election case is so bizarre that it might as well be a tryout for an "insanity defense," argued former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal on MSNBC Tuesday.
Shortly after being booked at the Fulton County Jail, Eastman confidently asserted to reporters that the 2020 election was in fact stolen — something that, Katyal noted, he must know by now is not true.
"It gives me pause to repeat over and over that John Eastman still believes there's fraud," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "He is, as Whoopi Goldberg would say, a grown-ass man who can read the verdict of 60 courts that said no, there isn't, that the evidence doesn't exist. Simply repeating over and over again that you believe a lie to be a truth isn't a criminal defense, is it?"
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"No," said Katyal. "What he said to our colleague, Ali Vitali, today was that there was no question that the election was stolen. The only thing I can think is maybe, Nicolle, he is auditioning for an insanity defense or something like that, because it is just so preposterous. This is a guy — I clerked with him, he was clerking at the Supreme Court when I was. I mean, we all thought he was kooky, but no one thought he would be someone who would go to jail. He has really lost his way. Another statement he said today, he said that the indictment, quote, 'targets attorneys for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients,' something something, 'attorneys are ethically bound to provide' and he was attempting to do so here by formally challenging the results of the election 'through lawful and appropriate means.' That's a quote from him."
Calling what Eastman did "zealous advocacy," Katyal continued, is "an insult to all lawyers."
"This guy was plotting a coup," said Katyal. "Yes, he covered it up with language like Electoral Count Act and stuff like that, but we shouldn't mistake what he was doing. He was saying he could throw out the popular votes and replace it with state legislators picking their own delegates to the Electoral College. And then the idea that he says he was formally challenging this. No, he tried to formally challenge it 62 different times and lost in court. What he did on January 6th with his colleagues was not lawful and appropriate means, it was violence and a coup, and that's why every day of every week what he did was illegal. He wasn't acting as a lawyer. He was acting as a coup plotter."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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