Exclusive: Trump lawyer John Eastman will move to SEVER his case from 18 other defendants including Trump and Rudy Giuliani to avoid being ‘tarred’ by people with ‘weaker’ defenses

Former Donald Trump attorney John Eastman wants to separate his own lawsuit from Trump, attorney Rudy Giuliani and other defendants whose case is much “weaker” than his own, he claims.

Eastman will not cooperate with prosecutors seeking to convict him and 18 other defendants charged this week with a criminal conspiracy as part of Trump’s bid to overthrow the election, his team stressed.

And he is eager to distance himself from the others in legal jeopardy as soon as possible, believing that he can be acquitted in a trial that would only take a few weeks.

“The people with stronger defenses don’t want to be plagued by the problems of the people with weaker defenses,” Eastman’s lawyer Harvey Silvergate told DailyMail.com.

“The former mayor of New York is in a very different position than John Eastman,” he added. “It could be that the former mayor of New York and Trump and a few others are on trial together,” he predicted.

The move is an important early sign of what could be a brutal rush for life jackets following a sprawling indictment that joins 19 defendants — and names a string of unindicted co-conspirators who may be working with prosecutors.

Their fates are now united amid a huge legal and logistical challenge of bringing an extortion case against 19 defendants. All have been ordered to appear before August 25 to be arrested.

Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is already seeking to move his case from Georgia to federal court when he can attempt to file an immunity defense for conduct he committed as a US government official.

Silvergate has previously said that Eastman plans to focus his defense on his role as attorney — giving advice and writing arguments on behalf of his client, Trump, who prosecutors say made every effort to remain in office despite the loss from joe. to pray.

“Eastman is in a unique position because he is the only one who behaved 100 percent in his role as attorney for his client,” he said.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis spoke to the media the night a grand jury filed a sprawling indictment for alleged criminal conspiracy related to Trump’s presidential election

Former President Donald Trump called the charges a “witch hunt” in a new interview on Fox Business

“The former mayor of New York is in a very different position than John Eastman,” said Eastman’s attorney Harvey Silvergate.

Silvergate said Eastman is “the only one who acted 100 percent in his role as attorney for his client”

He’s going to plead not guilty. He’s not going to make deals. We’re going to court,” he said. “We hope we go to court alone because that makes more sense in the world.”

Giuliani also served as a Trump attorney. He is the second person named after the ex-president in the sweeping indictment filed Tuesday night.

He faces significant exposure in the Fulton County case. He faces 13 charges, including false statements and solicitation of government officials amid the “fake” voter scheme.

Giuliani himself testified before the grand jury and is working to extricate himself from a legal quagmire that leaves him facing 7-figure attorney fees.

That alone makes him a potential target for collaboration, assuming prosecutors were open to a deal. He reportedly recently went to Mar-a-Lago to seek help from Trump on his legal bills.

Eastman himself is charged with racketeering, incitement to violate oath, conspiracy to impersonate a public official and conspiracy to make false statements.

He drafted a pivotal memo outlining options for Trump, including Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to accept state-certified electoral votes once a group of states Trump was fighting sent “alternate” voters.

The indictment says Eastman emailed Giuliani in December 2020 and forwarded a memo from attorney John Chesebro titled, “The Real Deadline for Settling a State’s Electoral Votes.” It says he called Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and asked him to “illegitimately” nominate voters.

It also says he urged Mike Pence’s chief of staff to get the vice president to refuse to accept votes, and that Trump and Eastman called Pence on January 5 trying to persuade him to do the same. He also spoke at the Ellipse on January 6.

Eastman is one of the defendants who could try to defend a First Amendment while also using their role as counsel as a shield. Silvergate called the allegations an attempt to “criminalize” advocacy.

“I believe that if the Eastman trial is held separately, it could be completed in less than two weeks,” Silvergate said. And he will be acquitted. Because it is very, very clear that he has not committed any crimes,” he added.

Even as he settles his trial in Georgia, Eastman is fighting to keep his law license in California, where members of a state bar want to immediately punish him for his role in the Jan. 6 unrest.

Silvergate called it “straight out of Alice in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts: first the punishment, then the trial.” He wants the bar to wait for the outcome in Georgia.

California state attorney Duncan Carling wrote Tuesday that the suit filed by DA Fani Willis of Fulton County “could take years to resolve.”