Jim Bourg | Reuters A federal judge said Monday that former President Donald Trump may have violated the law by trying “corruptly” to prevent President Joe Biden’s’s victory in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. Judge David Carter wrote in a court ruling that Trump and his ally, lawyer John Eastman, “launched a campaign to overthrow the Democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history.” Eastman had written a note detailing how Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to certify Biden’s election victory at a joint congressional hearing on Jan. 6. “Their campaign was not limited to the ivory tower – it was a coup in search of a legal theory,” Carter wrote in the U.S. District Court for Central California, which rejected most of Eastman’s offer to withhold documents from select the parliamentary committee investigating the Capitol uprising on January 6. “If the plan had worked, it would have definitively ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution,” the judge wrote. “If the country does not commit itself to investigating and seeking responsibility for those responsible, the Court fears that January 6 will be repeated.” Carter ‘s scathing remarks came in the wake of Eastman’ s decision to reveal 101 documents to the House select committee. The judge wrote that another 10 documents should not be handed over to the committee, finding that they are privileged. Eastman had spoken at a Trump rally outside the White House earlier in the day, where the then president and his allies called on Congress and Pence to block Biden’s victory. Shortly afterwards, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol complex and flooded into Congress. The riot halted proceedings for hours, confirming that Biden would become president later this month. Representatives of Trump and the House of Representatives committee, as well as Eastman’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Carter’s decision. – Additional citation by Kevin Breuninger This is breaking news. Check again for updates.
