Carter continued: "In early December, Attorney General [William] Barr publicly stated there was no evidence of fraud, and on December 27, Deputy Attorney General [Richard] Donoghue privately told President Trump that after 'dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews,' the Department of Justice had concluded that 'the major allegations [of election fraud] are not supported by the evidence developed.' Still, President Trump repeatedly urged that 'the Department [of Justice] should publicly say that the election is corrupt or suspect or not reliable.' By early January, more than sixty court cases alleging fraud had been dismissed for lack of evidence or lack of standing."
The Jan. 6 select committee, which is investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol that was carried out in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Biden's win over Trump, had sought the emails Eastman had sent laying out the plan he and Trump knew to be illegal, Carter said.
"Based on the evidence, the Court finds that it is more likely than not that President Trump and Dr. Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021," the judge wrote.
Trump and Eastman, a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have fought to keep their records from being turned over to the Jan. 6 panel. In January, however, the Supreme Court rejected arguments made by Trump's lawyers that the National Archives could withhold hundreds of pages of documents from the committee.
The sole dissenter in that 8-1 ruling was Thomas, whose wife, Ginni, has been revealed to have encouraged then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to fight to keep Trump in office.
It appears likely that the case deciding the fate of Eastman's emails will also head to the Supreme Court, which could set up a dilemma for Chief Justice John Roberts. Democrats, citing Ginni Thomas's communications with Meadows, are demanding that her husband recuse himself on any further cases regarding the 2020 election.
“This is a textbook case for removing him, recusing him from those decisions,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Sunday of Thomas on ABC’s “This Week." “All I hear is silence from the Supreme Court right now. That better change in the coming week.”
Citing the need for ethics reform at the highest court in the nation, Klobuchar criticized the current system in which it is left to individual justices to recuse themselves in cases.
“I would hope Justice Roberts, who I respect, will stand up and get those ethics rules in place," she said.
