FBI agents seize phone of Donald Trump’s election lawyer
- John Eastman aided former US president Donald Trump in a bid to undo his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden
- The lawyer has been a central figure in the ongoing Capitol riot hearings by lawmakers investigating the January 6 attack
A conservative lawyer who aided former US president Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election results and who has been repeatedly referenced in House hearings on the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol said on Monday that federal agents seized his mobile phone last week.
John Eastman said the agents took his phone as he left a restaurant last Wednesday evening, the same day law enforcement officials conducted similar activity around the country as part of broadening investigations into efforts by Trump allies to overturn the election results in an unsuccessful bid to keep the Republican president in power.
Eastman said the agents who approached him identified themselves as from the FBI but appeared to be serving a warrant on behalf of the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, which he contends has no jurisdiction to investigate him since he has never worked for the department.
The action was disclosed in a filing in federal court in New Mexico in which Eastman challenges the legitimacy of the warrant, calling it too broad, and asks that a court force the federal government to return his phone.
The filing does not specify where exactly agents seized his phone, and a lawyer for Eastman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Federal agents last week served a raft of subpoenas related to a scheme by Trump allies to put forward alternate, or fake, slates of electors in hopes of invalidating the election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
