两位资深的共和党参议员请求最高法院重新审查对约翰·伊斯特曼的律师从业资格吊销决定。伊斯特曼曾参与策划阴谋，试图推翻2020年总统选举的结果，使唐纳德·特朗普当选。这是参议院司法委员会成员为减轻这场选举舞弊事件所带来的后果而采取的最新行动。犹他州参议员迈克·李（Mike Lee）和德克萨斯州参议员泰德·克鲁兹（Ted Cruz）在周三向最高法院提交的文件中指出：伊斯特曼在加利福尼亚州的律师从业资格被吊销，其实是由于政治活动人士利用律师行业的纪律处分程序来对付那些“在公共争议中处于不利地位”的律师。
Two prominent Senate Republicans are asking the Supreme Court to review the disbarment of John Eastman for helping orchestrate the plot to overturn the 2020 election for President Donald Trump. It’s the latest effort from Senate Judiciary Committee members to mitigate the fallout from the election subversion effort that ended in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who is poised to be the top Republican on the panel next Congress, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, wrote in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the decision to Eastman’s license to practice law in California was a result of political activists weaponizing the bar disciplinary process against attorneys on “the disfavored side of public controversies.”
他们写道：“一个不受欢迎甚至败诉的法律观点，并不意味着一个人就不适合从事法律工作。”两位参议员还强调，一个州对律师合理判断的反对意见不能成为惩罚的理由；这种做法可能会产生负面后果：“如果律师的职业生涯取决于律师行业监管机构是否认同他们的法律分析，那么他们就会失去积极为正义发声的动力。”
“An unpopular or even losing legal argument does not equal professional unfitness,” Lee and Cruz wrote. The senators also argued that a state’s disagreement with an attorney’s reasonable judgment can’t be grounds for punishment and could have a chilling effect: “Zealous advocacy will disappear if professional survival depends on whether bar regulators later agree with an attorney’s legal analysis."
伊斯特曼曾担任最高法院大法官克拉伦斯·托马斯（Clarence Thomas）的书记员。在拜登执政时期，特别检察官杰克·史密斯（Jack Smith）将伊斯特曼列为特朗普企图篡夺权力的阴谋参与者之一。伊斯特曼因参与这一阴谋在乔治亚州和亚利桑那州遭到刑事起诉，并于今年4月被吊销了律师从业资格。在一份被现已解散的、负责调查1月6日国会山袭击事件的众议院委员会发现的通信中，李对特朗普的律师克莱塔·米切尔（Cleta Mitchell）表示：“1月6日的事件非常危险……不仅对共和国本身构成威胁，也对总统本人构成威胁。”
Eastman, a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was identified by Biden-era special counsel Jack Smith as a co-conspirator in Trump’s alleged criminal plot to hang onto power in 2020. The attorney was criminally charged in Georgia and Arizona for his role in the scheme, and in April he was disbarred. Lee, in correspondence uncovered by the now-disbanded House committee to investigate the attacks on Jan. 6, told Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell that “Jan. 6 is a dangerous idea ... Not just for the republic itself, but also for the president.”
李还指出，没有任何法院或州立法机构支持特朗普试图证明自己实际上赢得了与乔·拜登的选举的主张，并认为国会并不适合成为特朗普的依靠。
The senator was outlining that no court or state legislature had backed Trump’s effort to prove he had, in fact, won the election contest against Joe Biden and didn’t see Congress as a fitting backstop.
史密斯于九月在参议院司法委员会作证，期间密苏里州共和党参议员乔什·霍利（Josh Hawley，R-Mo.）呼吁也应取消史密斯的律师资格。
Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September, where Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called for Smith to also be disbarred.