Trump’s Jan. 6 adviser’s comments in leaked recording of New Mexico meeting hint at post-election efforts to overturn votes.
At a speech last week before prospective GOP poll workers and challengers in New Mexico, former Trump attorney John Eastman urged his allies to file complaints that could form the basis for court challenges to the upcoming midterm and presidential elections.
The comments, outlined in a new audio recording obtained by POLITICO, suggest that Eastman and some other conservative activists see aggressive challenges to the legitimacy of individual votes as part of a larger strategy to build evidence that can be used to invalidate a county or state election.
“Document what you’ve seen, raise the challenge. And which of the judges on that election board decline to accept your challenge. Get it all written down,” said Eastman, a New Mexico resident. “That then becomes the basis for an affidavit in a court challenge after the fact,” he said.
Speaking to an Oct. 19 “Election Integrity Network” summit in Albuquerque, Eastman — a target of the House Jan. 6 committee for his role in advising the former president on ways to overturn the 2020 election in Congress — repeatedly said he personally wants to play a role in assisting those who challenge voters, including by connecting party poll challengers to local prosecutors.
Eastman was the keynote speaker at a meeting with dozens of attendees advertised as for election challengers, watchers and officials, among many such events being organized nationwide by conservative elections attorney Cleta Mitchell, also a central figure behind Trump’s 2020 legal strategy.
Eastman’s remarks are significant because the chief concern expressed by many nonpartisan elections experts about a new army of thousands of first-time workers and challengers — many of them inspired by the false belief that the last election was stolen from Trump –—has been that they will disrupt voting and even provoke open confrontations.
Yet Eastman advised his audience to “politely” and “gingerly,” and even with “a smile” create paper trails, suggesting altogether different end goals. These include giving losing GOP candidates ammunition to argue in court — and to the public — against the integrity of the voting and to pressure local commissions not to certify elections.
“You are allowed to make a written record of anything you see not going on correctly. That’s called creating evidence,” said Eastman in the audio recording provided by Documented, a non-partisan investigative watchdog that says it believes “democracy itself is under attack.” Documented said it got the tapes from attendees.
Eastman repeatedly made clear that poll challengers should create paper trails. He also urged poll workers and challengers to enforce highly technical interpretations of the law, even going so far as questioning the votes of people who don’t speak loudly enough when giving their name or address or who refuse to allow a poll worker or challenger to review their signature or birth year.
Such a situation could easily spark confrontations, election-law experts say, which in themselves could threaten a person’s right to vote. Eastman, in his speech, maintained that failing to allow a challenger to review specific materials “is a crime” that should be enforced. “Every judicial district has to have designated by now an elections prosecutor,” said Eastman.
“Create those notes because that becomes the evidence in these legal challenges if we need them,” said Eastman, who also warned against attempting to handle or count actual ballots, which could get challengers kicked out by local clerks.
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Exclusive: Recording from last week of architect of Trump's failed attempt to overturn 2020 election:
👉Eastman urges allies to file complaints that could be used for court challenges to the upcoming midterm and presidential elections.
https://t.co/rR0BnX0ZvZ via @politico
— Heidi Przybyla (@HeidiReports) October 28, 2022
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