Rolling Stone is citing two people familiar with Donald Trump's plots around the Jan. 6 trials that the former president wants to throw legal adviser John Eastman under the bus.
Eastman, who previously worked as a law professor, penned the so-called "coup memo," which made the legal case for why former Vice President Mike Pence could vote down the 2020 certification of the Electoral College. After three public hearings from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and attempt to overthrow the election, Eastman has garnered a lot of negative "attention," which has perturbed Trump.
Those who spoke to Trump about Eastman in the past several months say that he is adopting a strategy he has frequently used when he appears to be guilty.
"He has privately insisted he 'hardly' or 'barely' knows Eastman, despite the fact that he counseled Trump on taking a string of extra-legal measures in a bid to stay in power," said the report.
Trump is requesting information about Eastman's "fortunes" behind closed doors, the report said, and asking, "Is [John] going to jail?"
The report also explained that Trump has been told by his lawyers not to talk about Eastman's work and to avoid any conversations about it entirely, three sources confirmed to Rolling Stone.
“It has been repeatedly communicated to the [former] president that he should not even bring up Johnny Eastman’s name because he is maybe the most radioactive person [involved in this] when it comes to…any so-called criminal exposure,” an inside source told reporters. “Johnny does not have many friends in [the upper crust of] Trumpworld left, and most people loyal to the [former] president are fine with him being left out on his own, to deal with whatever consequences he may or may not face.”
The report went on to say that Trumpworld would prefer to drop Eastman and back away from him, despite his support for Trump and desperate attempts to overthrow the 2020 election for him.
