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A federal judge on Tuesday dealt a blow to John Eastman, a lawyer and central architect of Donald Trump's failed scheme to overturn the 2020 election, as he seeks to reclaim his cellphone, which was seized in June by federal investigators.
Eastman advised Trump and members of his inner circle on a plan to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence into blocking the certification of the 2020 election results. He pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times during questioning by congressional investigators in June, and the House Jan. 6 committee has said he angled for a pardon in the final days of the Trump presidency.
Law enforcement officials seemingly have countless reasons to investigate him, and Eastman is far from happy about it. That was most evident in his whining interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson back in June, in which Eastman presented footage of officials seizing his phone as he complained they didn’t have a proper warrant.
This suggestion — that government officials didn’t obtain a warrant and therefore should have to destroy any information copied from his phone — has been refuted by the Department of Justice.
U.S. District Judge Robert Brack for the District of New Mexico, who is overseeing the case, had agreed earlier this year to hold a Sept. 6 hearing to discuss Eastman’s allegations. But in his Tuesday ruling, he made clear that a hearing would be a waste of time, mainly because the feds informed the court they’d obtained warrants to seize Eastman’s phone and look through its contents.
“Given that the Government has affirmed to the Court on the record that a warrant has been issued, the Court finds that Eastman cannot make a good faith argument that an evidentiary issue on the existence of a warrant remains,” Brack wrote.
In other words: “I’m not holding a hearing just so you can regale us with your baseless charade.” Or, as Law and Crime wrote, the judge’s cancellation of the hearing "indicates he doesn’t see the legal complexities that Eastman does.”
The Sept. 6 date is still significant despite there no longer being a hearing scheduled, according to Law and Crime. By then, the government is expected to submit a response to Eastman’s claim his phone should be returned unless officials have an ongoing need to keep it. Brack will rule on the matter at some point afterward.