January 6 committee teases next hearing with video of Trump lawyer warning John Eastman
By Ryan Nobles, Kristin Wilson, Zachary Cohen and Annie Grayer, CNN
The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol teased their upcoming hearing on Thursday, by releasing a video clip from their deposition of former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann.
In the clip, Herschmann outlines how he warned conservative attorney John Eastman to back off plans to file appeals in Georgia based on the election results after the events of January 6, 2021.
Thursday’s hearing is expected to focus on the pressure campaign applied to former Vice President Mike Pence to stand in the way of the certification of the election. Eastman was the architect of the plan, and the committee plans to show that he pushed it to former President Donald Trump despite the insistence from his top lawyers that it was not sound legal advice.
“He started to ask me about something dealing with Georgia and preserving something, potentially, for appeal,” Herschmann says in the video. “And I said to him, ‘Are you out of your effing mind? Because I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth for now on: orderly transition.’ I said ‘I don’t want to hear any other effing words coming out of your mouth no matter what, other than ‘orderly transition.’ Repeat those words to me.”
He then goes on to warn Eastman that his actions could potentially be against the law.
“Eventually he said ‘orderly transition.’ I said, ‘Good John. Now I’m gonna give you the best free legal advice you’re ever getting in your life. Get a great effing criminal defense lawyer. You’re gonna need it.’ And I hung up on him.”
The committee is in the middle of a series of public hearings, which started last week, to showcase the panel’s findings since forming last year. On Monday, the committee heard testimony from a former Fox News digital politics editor, a conservative lawyer, a former US attorney and a former Republican election official — who all said it was clear President Joe Biden won the election and Trump’s claims of fraud were nonsense.
The committee was originally scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday, but that has been postponed until a later date. Members cited “technical issues” as well as giving Americans “the time and space to digest” the previous hearing as the reasons for the delay.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated Eric Herschmann’s position. He was a Trump White House lawyer.
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