Attorney John Eastman has tried to shield more than 10,000 pages of emails from congressional investigators by claiming attorney-client privilege.
The House select committee has subpoenaed more than 94,000 pages from the right-wing attorney's former employer, Chapman University, and a federal judge denied his attempt to block that order -- but now Eastman is trying to claim privilege over many of them, reported Politico.
"In a court filing early Monday, Eastman said he has reviewed about 46,000 pages — nearly half the total — and provided about 8,000 to the committee," the website reported. "About 27,000 were automatically withheld because they were considered boilerplate mass emails, like campaign solicitations or newsletters. Eastman has attempted to shield the remaining 11,000 from the select committee by citing one of the attorney related privileges. With half of the review remaining, it’s likely that total will climb."
U.S. District Court Judge James Carter ordered Eastman, who authored the so-called "coup memo" calling for vice president Mike Pence to overturn Trump's election loss, has ordered the attorney to review 1,500 pages per day and determine whether privilege applies, and he and House investigators are due in court Monday afternoon to update the judge on their progress.
