Eastman Asked to Be on the 'Pardon List'

A legal scholar who advised former President Trump that the electors could be blocked from making President Biden's election official evidently reflected on his own situation after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Then he tried to obtain a presidential pardon. Eastman sent an email to fellow Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani days after the riot saying, "I've decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works," Axios reports. The request was revealed during Thursday's Jan. 6 hearings. Another email from Eastman aired during testimony could be problematic for him.

Late on the night of the attack, Eastman put a request that Vice President Mike Pence break the law in writing, per the Insider. "So now that the precedent has been set that the Electoral Count Act is not quite so sacrosanct as was previously claimed, I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation and adjourn for 10 days," Eastman emailed to Greg Jacob, Pence's lawyer. Eastman said the break would let state legislatures investigate and provide time for "a full forensic audit of the massive amount of illegal activity that has occurred here." When questioned while providing a deposition to the House committee, Eastman invoked his 5th Amendment protection 100 times, said Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar, a member of the panel. (More Jan. 6 hearings stories.)