Attorneys working for former president Donald Trump’s failed 2020 re-election campaign mocked his lack of financial liquidity and his rampant violation of the US Constitution in emails released in a court filing by the House January 6 select committee.
The panel has been engaged in a court battle to obtain emails from John Eastman, the ex-Chapman University law professor who formulated plans for Mr Trump to overturn the election with fake slates of electoral votes, and other attorneys working with the campaign.
Committee attorneys said in a filing that Mr Eastman has deliberately mischaracterised multiple emails as being covered by attorney-client privilege, and offered the example of an email exchange between him and Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Bruce Marks, in which the latter two made fun of Mr Trump.
In one email, Mr Chesebro wrote: “Am at Trump [International] NYC, so I’m [feeling] extra [inspired] to work on the [President’s] cases!!”
Mr Marks replied that it was “a shame” Mr Chesebro was not in Washington at Mr Trump’s hotel so he could “contribute to violation of the emoluments clause” of the US Constitution.
In response, Mr Chesebro wrote that he was staying at Mr Trump’s Washington, DC hotel from 3 January to 8 January, and said he was “doing [his] part to curry favor[sic]” with Mr Trump “by lining his empty pockets”.
Committee lawyers said Mr Eastman’s emails show his “representations regarding the nature or content of the remaining 562 documents are unreliable” and asked the judge to allow them access under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege.
