A lawyer linked to Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the result of the 2020 election has claimed the FBI stopped him outside a restaurant and seized his phone.
In a court filing, John Eastman said that federal agents approached him on the evening of 22 June.
The details of the alleged incident were contained within a court filing, in which the 62-year-old was trying to recover the property.
“Movant asked to see the warrant, but the executing officer refused. Movant was frisked. Movant’s phone—an iPhone Pro 12—was seized.”
It added: “Movant was forced to provide biometric data to open said phone. Movant was not provided a copy of the warrant until after his phone was seized, and even then, he was only given a copy of the search warrant but not the supporting affidavit referenced in it.”
About six federal investigators approached the right-wing lawyer in New Mexico when he was exiting a restaurant after dinner with his wife and a friend, according to the court filings, first reported by CNN.
Agents were able to get access to Eastman’s email accounts on his iPhone 12 Pro, the filings said.
Mr Eastman, a one-time professor of law at the small Chapman University in Orange County, California, is said to have been inextricably involved in Mr Trump’s efforts to hold on to victory, despite his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
In the days after his loss and as he became more desperate to turn the situation around, Mr Trump invited Mr Eastman to visit him at the Oval Office and expound on his theory, as to how he could still emerge victorious.
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