An apparent mishap with Dropbox led to media outlets obtaining access to a batch of emails that revealed former President Donald Trump’s attorneys viewed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as key to overturning the 2020 election.
Trump lawyer John Eastman begrudgingly shared a Dropbox link with the Jan. 6 committee on Oct. 28 in compliance with a court order demanding he turn over a batch of emails but asked the panel not to open the files. In a subsequent court filing, lawyers for the committee included the link, unaware the public could access the files, according to House General Counsel Douglas Letter.
“We were not aware that the links in Dr. Eastman’s email remained active, and had no intention to provide this type of public access to the materials at this stage. Providing public access to this material at this point was purely inadvertent on our part,” Letter wrote in a brief letter to the court.
On Oct. 19, U.S. District Judge David Carter ordered Eastman to hand over a batch of emails to the panel in a scathing opinion in which Carter effectively argued that Trump had lied in court during a challenge to the 2020 election.
Eastman appeared to drag his feet and waited until the deadline he was given, Oct. 28, to hand over the emails to the committee. While turning over the batch of emails, Eastman pleaded with the committee not to comb through them because he planned to appeal the Oct. 19 order, Politico reported.
The committee went through the email batch anyways, with Letter arguing there had not been a court order inhibiting it from doing so, per the report. Eastman then filed an emergency motion with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the panel included the Dropbox link in its response brief, per Letter.
“We have communicated this information to counsel for Dr. Eastman so that they can deactivate the links going forward,” Letter added.
How this unfolded:
1) 10/19: Judge ordered Eastman to send 8 “crime-fraud” emails to Jan. 6 committee by 10/28
2) 10/28: Eastman waits until last moment, sends a dropbox link to committee.
3) Eastman says to committee ‘pretty please don’t open these’ bc I’m appealing(1 of 2)
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 2, 2022
On Wednesday, Politico published redacted emails from that batch, showcasing Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and Eastman theorizing that Thomas was their best hope of blocking certification of the 2020 election. Both Chesebro and Eastman were architects of Trump’s efforts to thwart the 2020 election in court.
“We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt,” Chesebro explained in one of the email exchanges.
“I think I agree with this,” Eastman later replied.
Chesebro was more explicit in another email that same day.
“If we can just get this case pending before the Supreme Court by Jan. 5, ideally with something positive written by a judge or justice, hopefully Thomas, I think it’s our best shot at holding up the count of a state in Congress,” Chesebro said.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Chesebro and an Eastman lawyer for comment.
Eastman has long been embroiled in a legal battle with the Jan. 6 committee. He has already turned over thousands of pages’ worth of emails from his Chapman University account to the panel, which had subpoenaed him for the documents.
