Donald Trump is facing criticism for premiering a documentary over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago about an allied lawyer who helped him strategize about how to overturn the 2020 election results.
The film, The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare of Justice, profiles lawyer John Eastman, who helped Donald Trump formulate an unprecedented, illegal plan to use Congress and the vice-president to overturn the certification of the 2020 election results.
The documentary examines “growing evidence that a two-tiered justice system has emerged, where conservative figures face severe penalties,” according to its creators.
Other election deniers were also at the event, including his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former trade official Peter Navarro, who helped devise a separate plan from Eastman’s to reject the 2020 results and later spent time in prison for being in contempt of the January 6 congressional committee.
The event, which was closed to the press, prompted outrage from panelists on MSNBC’s The Weekend.
“This is sickening!" Symone Sanders-Townsend said on Sunday.
"Those people are not patriots," she added. "What Donald Trump did last night is a disgrace to the country. It’s a disgrace to the Constitution, and the fact that they didn’t tell anybody about it lets you know that they knew what they were doing was untoward. They didn’t want to put a spotlight on it, but they wanted to do it anyway."
The Independent has contacted the Trump transition team for comment.
During the event, Trump reportedly praised Eastman.
"I’m a big fan of John Eastman,” MSNBC reported Trump as saying. “Y’know, he was right. He happened to be right. That’s why they changed the law and nobody wants to talk about that...They said he’s not allowed to do it, he’s not allowed to do it, and they convinced him he’s not allowed to do it — our vice president — then right after the election they changed the law so he can’t do it.”
Trump says he skipped dessert to come down to the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago to catch a screening of "The Eastman Dilemma” documentary.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 5, 2025
He brought Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni with him to watch the film, which is billed as being about "how conservatives have been… pic.twitter.com/EqoFQ1kfWo
The comments were a reference to President Biden in 2022 signing changes to the archaic Electoral Count Act, clarifying that the vice president plays a ceremonial role and that each state only has one lawful slate of electors. The reforms both directly answered to unprecedented tactics Trump used to attempt to overturn the 2020 results.
The Saturday premiere, which coincided with a visit from Italian Prime Minister Giogia Meloni, came just two days before January 6, both the anniversary of the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the federally mandated date on which Kamala Harris will certify the 2024 election results.
Eastman is currently among the Trump allies being prosecuted in Georgia and Arizona for their alleged roles in conspiracies to interfere with the 2020 election process, and a judge recommended this year he be disbarred from practicing law in California.
“Eastman failed to uphold his primary duty of honesty and breached his ethical obligations by presenting falsehoods to bolster his legal arguments,” the judge in California wrote.
Eastman has pleaded not guilty in both state cases, and has attempted to appeal the disbarment process.
