Our prayers for all 01-01-2025 victims!
Cybertruck explosion at Trump Las Vegas hotel may be act of terror: Seven bystanders were injured when a Cybertruck exploded in Las Vegas on Wednesday, 01-01-2025, officials said and its driver was killed. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the blast was NOT caused by the vehicle!
Possible Terrorist Attack, filled with fireworks explosives
Are these acts of terrorism? Is there a connection between New Orleans and Las Vegas Trump Hotel?
A Tesla Cybertruck - 8 victims, vehicle loaded with fireworks
2024 Cybertruck was rented, just like the vehicle in New Orleans... Elon Musk says the fireworks are the cause, not something about the Cybertruck
What is the motive? The truck was rented through an APP, the same APP used in New Orleans...
The truck was rented in Colorado!
All the people in the hotel were evacuated!
By Jeff Duncan, January 01, 2025 2:32 PM
The Allstate Sugar Bowl is being postponed in the wake of a suspected terrorist attack in downtown New Orleans earlier in the day, multiple sources said Wednesday.
The New York Post is reporting the game has been pushed 24 hours to Thursday night.
The game between Georgia and Notre Dame, was scheduled to kick off at 7:45 p.m.
LATEST NEWS New Orleans death toll climbs, suspect identified and pipe bombs found in French Quarter By Ben Myers and Jerry DiColo Updated January 01, 2025 8:15 PM
At least 15 people were killed and dozens were injured after a man barreled his truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans during the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.
The FBI is investigating the mass casualty attack as a potential “act of terrorism.”
Mayor LaToya Cantrell and New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick have called the incident an intentional attack.
The perpetrator, who has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, also shot at police officers, injuring two of them before he was shot and killed by police.
Investigators are still working to piece together details of the attack.
The suspect Jabbar is a U.S. citizen from Texas and Army veteran.
The agency said he was carrying an ISIS flag in the Ford pickup truck, and that agents were working to determine his “potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.”
The deceased 42-year-old man who law enforcement said is responsible for the New Year’s Day mass killings on Bourbon Street is a former real estate agent and U.S. citizen from Texas who spent time in the military, records show.
Jabbar recently told his Houston landlord that he was planning to move to New Orleans, the landlord said in an interview Wednesday.
The FBI also said it was investigating how Jabbar came into possession of the truck with Texas plates, which appeared to be rented.
Court and property records show Jabbar lived in Fresno, Texas — about 20 miles south of Houston — with his wife before they divorced in August 2022.
He held a real estate license from 2019 to 2023 and worked for Deloitte, one of the nation’s largest financial services companies, records show.
Jabbar started renting a mobile home in Houston two years ago after reaching out about the posting on Facebook, said his landlord, Asia Maryam.
Maryam, who said she was “shocked” at the news, said Jabbar never gave her or the neighbors any problems and paid his rent in cash on time every month.
FBI: He wasn’t alone Jabbar didn’t work alone, FBI officials said Wednesday.
The FBI is taking lead on the investigation into 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas who was fatally shot by police after he mowed people down on Bourbon Street in a pickup truck that carried an Islamic State group flag.
FBI Special Agent Alethea Duncan said others involved in the attack are likely still on the loose.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible. We are aggressively running down every lead, including of those of his known associates,” Duncan said.
Surveillance footage circulated among law enforcement also captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices in the French Quarter, according to a Louisiana State Police bulletin obtained by the Associated Press.
The FBI, which has dubbed the incident “an act of terrorism,” is asking anyone who has had contact with Jabbar in the past 72 hours to contact the agency, at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The agency is also asking people to submit any video they may have captured of the incident.
Explosives found
Authorities found two confirmed improvised explosive devices in and around the French Quarter Wednesday morning after a man plowed through a crowd on Bourbon Street.
About 30 minutes after the attack, police found a homemade bomb near police cars parked at Orleans and Bourbon streets. The device was a pipe bomb with nails and plastic explosives concealed inside of an ice chest.
Barriers were down
A set of security barriers that were installed in 2017 to prevent terrorist attacks along Bourbon Street were being replaced when a driver barreled down the city’s most famous thoroughfare hours into the New Year on Wednesday, killing 10 and injuring dozens.
The removable stainless-steel bollards are designed to be securely locked at each crosswalk along Bourbon Street between Canal and St. Ann streets, according to Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration.
The attack occurred near the intersection of Bourbon and Iberville streets.
The bollard project began in November and was scheduled to last three months.
It involves removing and replacing sections of road to take out the existing bollards.
A city press release on Tuesday night noted the project was ongoing, but did not provide details of work done thus far.
The old barriers never worked too well, said Bob Simms, who until recently oversaw security initiatives for the French Quarter Management District.
“They were very ineffective. The track was always full of crap; beads and doubloons and God knows what else. Not the best idea,” Simms said.
“Eventually everybody realized the need to replace them. They’re in the process of doing that, but the new ones are not yet operational.”
Simms said the old barrier at the crosswalk of Canal and Bourbon streets was removed a few weeks ago. Equipment for a replacement is in place, he said.
“They’re doing it in time for the Super Bowl,” Simms said. “It’s ironic in a way.”
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter said the bollards would have prevented any vehicle from crossing in to Bourbon Street if they were operable. If not, the city should have have blocked access with heavy equipment, Carter said in an interview with WWL Louisiana.
CBS News, video below:
A man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter early on New Year's Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others, officials said.
A black ISIS flag was flying from the truck's rear bumper, and the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
The man driving the vehicle has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, the FBI said.
In televised remarks Wednesday evening, President Biden said the FBI has determined that just hours before the attack, Jabbar "posted videos to social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill."
The vehicle was an electric Ford pickup truck and appears to have been rented, the FBI said. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on social media Jabbar rented the truck on Dec. 30, while living in the Houston area, before heading to New Orleans.
FBI special agent Alethea Duncan said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon that investigators "do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible" for the attack, and the FBI believes he may have had help carrying it out. Duncan said the FBI is looking at a "range of suspects" and does "not want to rule anything out" at this stage of the investigation. The FBI is also working to determine his potential affiliations or associations with terrorist associations.
The man then exited the car and opened fire on officers, the FBI official said. He died after exchanging gunfire with three responding officers, the FBI said. He was struck by police fire and declared dead at the scene, the New Orleans Police Department said. Two police officers were hit by gunfire but were in stable condition.
Weapons and two potential improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were located in the vehicle, Duncan said. At least one other IED was found in the French Quarter, and was detonated by law enforcement, a person familiar with the investigation said. The number of IEDs left behind is a large part of why the FBI believes the man may have had an accomplice, sources tell CBS News. Investigators are combing through video to see if there were accomplices involved in placing the devices, sources told CBS News.
Further sweeps by law enforcement did not find any more IEDs, Duncan said. Kirkpatrick said police walked the area as a grid, looking for any suspicious items. Anyone who sees anything suspicious should contact officials, Duncan said.
A long gun was recovered from the scene, law enforcement sources told CBS News. The long gun had a "suppressive device" on it that acted as a silencer, according to sources on the scene.
Two sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News the man was wearing body armor.
Investigators from the FBI, Homeland Security and bomb squad have all been on the scene at an Airbnb in the St. Roch area of New Orleans, where officials tell CBS News the suspect was staying while in New Orleans. That building caught fire on Wednesday and the investigation into that fire is ongoing.
Duncan asked that anyone with information about the man contact the FBI. A U.S. official confirmed to CBS News that he had previously served in the U.S. military.
Officials react to "horrific act of violence"
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called it "a horrific act of violence" and said he and his wife were "praying for all the victims and first responders on scene." He urged people to avoid the area.
"As of now, 15 people are deceased. It will take several days to perform all autopsies. Once we complete the autopsies and talk with the next of kin, we will release the identifications of the victims," New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna said in a statement.
The popular tourist district was full of New Year's Day revelers at the time of the attack.
Witnesses told CBS News reporter Kati Weis that a white truck crashed into people on Bourbon Street at high speed, and the driver then started firing a weapon from inside the vehicle, with police returning fire. Weis saw multiple people on the ground being treated for injuries near the intersection of Bourbon and Canal Streets.
The City of New Orleans said in a statement posted online that 30 people were transported to area hospitals with injuries and 10 people were confirmed dead. Kirkpatrick later said that at least 35 people were hospitalized.
"He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did," Kirkpatrick said.
Duncan said the FBI will be leading the investigation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department's National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana will work with the FBI and local officials to support the investigation, Attorney General Merrick Garland said. President Biden was briefed about the attack, the White House said, and his administration has been in touch with Cantrell to offer support.
Biden said in a statement he has directed his administration to "ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind."
"My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday," Biden said. "There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation's communities."
President-elect Donald Trump also acknowledged the attack in a post on TruthSocial.
"Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department," Trump said, in part.
Sugar Bowl postponed
The Sugar Bowl college football playoff game was set to be played at the nearby Superdome later Wednesday, but has been rescheduled for Thursday night. Kirkpatrick said bomb sweeps have been conducted at the Superdome, and said the stadium would be locked down until the game.
Jeff Hundley, the Chief Executive Officer of the Sugar Bowl, announced the delay at Thursday's news conference. More details about the rescheduled game will be available in the coming hours, he said.
"We live in the fun and games world, with what we do, but we certainly recognize the importance of this and we're going to support it 100%," Hundley said.
A student from the University of Georgia, one of the teams playing in the game, was "critically injured" in the attack, according to a statement from the school on social media. The student was not identified.
Witnesses attempted to help victims
Jim and Nicole Mowrer were in New Orleans visiting from Iowa and witnessed the incident. The couple told CBS News they had watched the city's fireworks display and were enjoying the New Year's Day atmosphere in the French Quarter when they heard crashing noises coming from down the street. They said they then saw a white truck slam through a barricade "at a high rate of speed," followed by gunfire and police. The couple said the truck hit people about a block away from where they had been walking.
"Once the gunfire stopped, we stayed in the alcove until the gunfire stopped, came out into the street, and came across a lot of — several people who had been hit, [we] wanted to see what we could do to help," Nicole Mowrer said. She said the couple found the victims had died.
The Mowrers said the victims they saw had injuries from the truck impact, and they did not see any apparent gunshot wounds. They said they left the area once emergency responders started arriving.
In a 2017 memo reviewed by CBS News, the city of New Orleans had acknowledged the risk of a mass casualty incident in the crowded, tourist-friendly French Quarter. The memo specifically referenced vehicle attacks in Nice, France, London, England and New York City. To minimize risk, the city said it planned to establish a camera and surveillance program, a centralized command center, more police patrols and infrastructure upgrades. The city had been in the process of upgrading the pedestrian bollard system in the French Quarter to modernize and bolster protections, with work ongoing through February.
Kati Weis, Andres Triay, Pat Milton, Nicole Sganga, Anna Schecter, Robert Legare and Rhona Tarrant contributed to this report.
She had just turned 10 years old... the authorities think it was someone shooting to celebrate the new year... what goes up must come down... and the stray bullet killed her on 01-01-2025... Our prayers with the family!
By Ana Claudia Chacin and Clara-Sophia Daly Updated December 31, 2024 12:59 PM|
In the weeks following an investigation by the Miami Herald about a gymnastics coach now charged with sexually assaulting two of his former students, Village of Key Biscayne manager Steve Williamson turned to a public relations firm to clean up its image — and later, instructed employees to stay quiet or face consequences.
Williamson, who was well aware of the image crisis the island was having, started working with Roar Media just weeks after the Herald published its investigation on Oscar Olea, the former gymnastics coach, earlier this year.
The village paid the company over $16,800 for five months of work and recently hired Roar on a $120,000 yearlong contract. The same company in April advised village staff to designate a spokesperson and have all media inquiries go through the city manager.
Then, just last month, Williamson issued a policy that bars village employees from communicating with news media “in any manner” without approval.
The policy itself was issued without a council member hearing or vote. Non-adherence “may result in disciplinary action,” the policy reads.
One attorney who spoke to the Herald said that controlling the flow of communication can damage the American democratic system and that the policy could expose the village to expensive lawsuits funded by taxpayer dollars for infringing employees’
First Amendment right to speak on “matters of public concern.”
The public has a “right to know what’s going on from their government officials, preferably directly from those who have knowledge,” said Lawrence Walters, who has spent over 35 years working on First Amendment and whistleblower claims.
Three council members who spoke to the Herald said they were unaware of the policy until it was issued or until the Key Biscayne Independent, which first reported on the policy, asked them about it. One told the Herald he was completely against it, and another asked for the policy to be suspended until it goes before the council.
Reached for comment, Williamson, who was on vacation, wrote in a statement sent by his spokesperson that “the purpose of the policy is to ensure our residents continue to get the most timely and accurate information while enabling our operating staff to focus on providing the best services to our community.”
Williamson said that he was “committed to keeping our village as one of the best municipalities in all of Florida.
Part of that commitment is ensuring we have a working and mutually respectful relationship with the media so that we both are clearly communicating important topics with our residents.”
In the weeks leading up to the village working with the firm, island residents had been pressuring the administration for transparency, following the Herald investigation that revealed:
The Herald’s reporting on the Olea case wasn’t the only issue on Key Biscayne residents’ minds when the firm started its work.
On New Year’s Eve 2023, the Herald broke the news about a Key Biscayne resident and practicing lawyer who got disbarred following an FBI investigation that led to charges related to receiving and producing child porn.
He was later sentenced to 16 years in prison.
And a couple of weeks before Roar Media began working with the village, residents were also grappling with the death of Megan Andrews, a 66-year-old cyclist who died in a head-on collision with a 12-year-old who was riding an electric bicycle.
For weeks before her death, residents had been complaining at council meetings about the dangers of kids driving electric bikes.
The village manager was seemingly aware that the village was facing challenges regarding its public image, according to text messages obtained by the Herald.
On Feb. 25, before a scheduled meeting with Roar Media CEO Jacques Hart, Williamson texted Hart a link to the Key Biscayne Independent’s podcast archives and wrote, “Please listen to the first one before we meet. We have interesting actors in all of this.”
In the podcast episode posted that same day, “Did Key Biscayne leaders mishandle the avalanche of crises?” media expert Thom Mozloom critiqued the village’s communications strategy — or lack thereof — regarding the Olea case and the other incidents.
One document obtained by the Herald through a public records request outlines Roar’s recommendation that Key Biscayne establish a “standardized response procedure” and directs Williamson to designate a spokesperson to deal with media and tell all other staff to redirect questions to that person.
“It is crucial to reemphasize the importance of adhering to the protocol outlined therein, which we consider required with no exceptions at this time,” Michelle Ayala, the Roar Media account director who worked with the village, wrote in a mid-April email obtained by the Herald.
The media firm also helped Key Biscayne officials with messaging regarding a new e-bike ordinance after the death of Andrews and with a new volunteer and employee vetting policy months after Olea’s arrest.
Roar Media was awarded a new contract starting Nov. 18 for continued services “to not exceed the $120,000,” according to village spokesperson Jessica Drouet.
“It seems their focus is almost exclusively on self-protection,” said Walters, the First Amendment lawyer.
“Do the taxpayers really want to be funding reputation management as opposed to traditional governmental services?”
Responses to the new policy
When contacted by the Herald, council member Edward London said Thursday that he had not seen Williamson’s policy until a Key Biscayne Independent reporter called about it last week.
“I assume the manager has the power to do it, but I’m against it,” he said.
He said he would continue to answer the phone and talk to reporters and said others should, too. “As far as I’m concerned, any employee who wants to speak to the press is fine with me.”
Another council member, Fernando Vazquez, said the policy should be suspended and brought to the council for discussion at the next meeting in mid-January.
“Of course we want to ensure that our administration runs smoothly but not at the effect of our First Amendment right to speak,” he said.
Council member Frank Caplan also told the Herald he didn’t know about the policy before it was announced but said it would be premature to comment because he was “not informed.”
Nancy Stoner, a newly elected council member, was the sole council person who had a positive look on the policy, calling it “prudent” in a text to a Herald reporter.
Michael Bracken, the other new member, told a reporter he was overseas and could only talk after Jan. 10.
Oscar Sardiñas was the only council member on the six-member council who did not answer a Herald reporter’s call or voicemail. Mayor Joe Rasco told a reporter he was on vacation with family.
Watered-down responses
Though the island spent over $16,000 on work done by the public relations firm, village staff did not always follow their direction. On at least one occasion, statements released by the village were watered-down versions of statements drafted initially by the firm.
A day after Olea’s arrest, a detective who had interviewed several victims erroneously turned in the wrong recording of one of the interviews, and the recording was placed into evidence before a March pre-trial detention hearing.
His phone had continued recording after the interview concluded, and the detective, Fernando Carvajal, was caught calling the mother of an alleged sexual abuse victim a “scumbag,” disparaging another alleged victim and talking to his brother about an open case.
On March 12, Roar shared a document that called for an “immediate public apology” from Key Biscayne police for the detective’s mistake. “Taking accountability is crucial to maintaining transparency and trust,” the document reads. The drafted statements included phrases like “sincerest apologies” and “deeply regret.”
But Key Biscayne Police Chief Frank Sousa’s statement sent to the Herald via email the next morning did not include any of that.
John Eastman, the Claremont Institute scholar and conservative firebrand who stood by President Trump’s side all throughout some of the darkest days in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election when the republic was on the line, will have his story told for the first time on the silver screen come the new year. The documentary, titled The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare or Justice, is slated for a fitting January 6th, 2025, release date, the fourth anniversary of the January 6th demonstration (but will premiere at Mar-a-Lago in a special event two days earlier). The film marks the culmination of a years-long ordeal that has seen Eastman, once universally revered as a foremost authority in constitutional construction and history, targeted by one of the most ruthless and sustained lawfare campaigns against any attorney in American history. Eastman, alongside former US Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, were systematically maligned, censured, and even disbarred for simply arising to a timeless call of both client and their profession by providing legal representation.
Eastman’s story is harrowing – and forebodes much darker times to come if we do not provide a radical course correction to the current state of affairs. That his representation of Donald Trump occurred at such a critical time in the nation’s history whereby most of the political world – unlike now – turned their backs to him was sufficient reason to make a scapegoat out of Eastman and a few select aforementioned peers. The reason, of course, was self-evident: the system wanted to kowtow all future lawyers into submission – from not only never again representing Donald Trump. But from creating a chilling effect profession-wide so that no future attorney would ever dare to think about representing any conservative cause or movement aligned with the former and now president-elect’s broader political mission whatever. The Left capitalized on this tragic state of affairs – and made life hell for Eastman – by exploiting Donald Trump at his weakest moment, in the immediate days and weeks after the stolen November 2020 election, and particularly after January 6th, when the 45thPresident was ignominiously ousted from the Swamp, many writing him off for good.
While fate had something else in store for both Donald Trump and country, precipitating maybe the greatest political comeback in American history, that victory did not come without significant personal costs to the many who rested uncompromisingly on their conditions and faith during the wilderness years.
Eastman’s was a standout case – especially for someone of his notoriety. Despite stellar credentials, he was forcibly exiled from the profession. Having graduated from one of the nation’s finest law schools (University of Chicago) and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman made a career of his passion for law and love for the country and history. He started off by working at one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, Kirkland & Ellis, specializing in constitutional litigation, before transitioning to teaching law full-time. As a professor, he enjoyed professorial stints at both Chapman University Fowler School of Law and the University of Colorado Boulder. He also was the founding-director for the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a think-tank devoted to educating and championing an originalist and textualist interpretation of the Constitution, in conformance with its framers’ intended and historic purpose.
By any measure, Eastman climbed the highest peaks of the legal profession – and then some. Top law school; Supreme Court clerkship; partner at big law; adviser to the President of the United States. But his career is made even more admirable by its trajectory: rather than coast as a partner raking in millions at a fancy firm, Eastman, following some of his great mentors – including Justice Thomas himself, found the path less taken of teaching more fulfilling and more noble. And boy did Americans benefit from that decision. At a time in which so many Americans do not know their history, particularly of the Revolutionary era out of which our Constitution was carved, Eastman devoted his energies to championing and illuminating this great tradition for our generation.
This decision reveals the noble side of Eastman’s vocation: America’s Constitution, the lynchpin for freedom the world over, is at grave risk of dying – in part because of our own ignorance, in part because far too many otherwise capable men abandoned their civic duties to make the necessary sacrifices to keep it alive. If not for men like Eastman, who put aside self-interested desires for the greater good, then the republic would not have withstood the test of time – and the torch of American freedom would have died out this generation.
The last four years are a searing case study of what happens when the project of freedom is forsaken. Eastman was summoned to provide legal representation to his client: the President of the United States. Part of what made Eastman’s legal advocacy so difficult – despite being vindicated in both the law and, as time would tell, history – was the fact that so few people, including the tribunals tasked with adjudicating these fundamental questions, are today familiar with the issues. What initially got Eastman in trouble was confusion over a fairly straightforward constitutional issue: namely, whether the President has the ability to request that his Vice President return fraudulent or legally doubtful slates of electors to their respective states for further inquiries.
That was it. This was not, as the media unwisely framed, the President beseeching his number two to “overturn” a presidential election. Nor was this the crazed theory of a madman lawyer seeking to make a name for himself by discrediting the results of a democratic election.
Instead, this was a lawyer providing representation to his client, as is the client’s right – and the lawyer’s duty – under the Constitution. Presidents, like any private citizen, have a Sixth Amendment right to zealous advocacy. Eastman, the lawyer and constitutional expert, had the right to offer his sound legal judgment on a hotly contested constitutional problem. A significant portion of the country – including not just Republicans, but many Independents and Democrats as well – have long believed America’s elections fraudulent, particularly with the lack of universal Voter ID. These controversies reached a hot boil in the lead-up and immediate aftermath of the November 2020 election, the most controversial presidential race in modern history, if not all time, as laws were changed with impunity under the pretext of an unprecedented global pandemic, creating confusion and ripe opportunities for widespread cheating. In an electoral system like ours, where the outcome is decided by a few ten thousand votes in a deeply polarized nation distributed across three or four key swing states, the President’s duty to ensure that our laws be faithfully executed, with reassurances to the public's confidence, becomes of chief importance.
This is naturally the case every election cycle. But was of paramount concern in 2020, a year of untold riots and norm-breaking rules changes to election law, which made the President’s constitutional prerogative of outsized import. This was already apparent on the morning of January 6th, 2021, when hundreds of thousands of overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators descended upon the Capitol to voice their outrage for how the 2020 race was carried out. By later that afternoon, when the mob became even more agitated and a small riot broke out, the need for reassurance – in a safe and orderly electoral process – reached maximum urgency. In hindsight, knowing how mentally debilitated a condition Joe Biden was in, it only reinforces the public perception – including those led to riot on January 6th – that the entire election result was an illegitimate sham, being pulled off by subversive agencies and actors within government and the press to thwart Donald Trump and the public support he so readily and easily commands. Four years later, in light of this most recent consequential and landslide election, it only further vindicates the widespread doubts about 2020 – doubts which persist, and will remain so as long as the ultimate verdict of January 6th remains in limbo. It also vindicates the theories of lawyers, like John Eastman, who insisted at the time in standing firmly behind the Constitution and its textual mandate, despite the titanic public pressures working against it.
Professionally and personally, Eastman experienced difficulties far beyond what any lawyer, let alone an expert competently performing his job, should ever have to face. Professionally, he was terminated from his university post, later to be disbarred by a vindictive and cowardly California Bar. This caused familial hardships and strains on his personal relationships. The countless indignities rendered by the California Bar upon Eastman so clearly demonstrates that the profession has much to learn from the timeless example of John Adams who nevertheless provided legal counsel to those British soldiers who carried out the Boston massacre, a stark reminder of the mighty obligations imposed upon all lawyers in all times to remain living in a free society.
In being one of the few attorneys to meet those high duties – and perform a damn well job along the way – Eastman demonstrated not just his enviable knowledge of presidential powers and constitutional theory, but maybe even more crucially, was a profile in courage, for not just lawyers but all Americans, of meeting his civic and professional duty, when the rest of the world turned a blind eye. Rather than be punished for his efforts, Eastman – as champion par excellence of that most hallowed political cause – should be celebrated for his service to country. His unjust white martyrdom at the hands of an increasingly despotic state is reminiscent of Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII, who was beheaded – and, centuries later, beatified – for standing firmly behind his higher duties to God and the English Constitution, as the world turned a blind eye. Of course, Eastman has not had to pay with his life (though there were moments where he was put at serious risk of danger with his driveway being spiked by nefarious actors) the similarities between him and More ought not to be taken lightly.
Ours — like More’s England under a despotic king — similarly is a time of creeping tyranny, where right has been overtaken by might – and the natural truths, including the ultimate divine ones, are oft overshadowed by the sinister forces of a counterfeit order – which presents a fake deity, fake constitution, and fake political regime. Now, more than ever, is proper discernment necessary – to determine the light of truth from the many deceptions in our midst. In the legal profession, especially, rare is the lawyer like John Eastman, who not only can tell the truth from lies, but as important, has the capability to answer the call to service, with real world impact, consistent with the truth.
Increasingly, the gifts and acumen needed to be an effective force for productive good in the world seems to be at a low point, especially among lawyers. The next Trump administration would be blessed to have not just one or two, but hundreds of diligent lawyers in the mold of John Eastman, Jeff Clark, Rudy Giuliani, and a handful of others, who stood by the President and remained loyal through trial and tribulation.
Eastman, as a shining example of loyalty and competence, is a reminder of just how far we have digressed from those expectations for our lawyers – and the work that is left undone, necessary to restore some semblance of fairness and justice to a profession that has forgotten that its chief purpose is ultimately to preserve constitutional government and the liberties of every single American citizen.
Paul Ingrassia, a graduate of Fordham University and Cornell Law School, is an Attorney; Communications Director of the NCLU; a two-time Claremont Fellow, and is on the Board of Advisors of the NYYR Club and the Italian American Civil Rights League. He writes a widely read Substack that is regularly posted on Truth Social by President Trump. Follow Paul on X,
For tickets, click below:
The distortion of Criminal Law to go against political enemies
Well, I can't afford to go see the movie... will wait for the DVD
The year 2025 starts filled with prayers with all victims of what appears to be acts of terrorism... Join us in prayer for the USA! 🇺🇸👼 🕊️ 🙏 🕊️🇺🇸👼 🕊️🙏 🕊️🇺🇸👼 🕊️🙏 🕊️🇺🇸👼 🕊️🙏 🕊️🇺🇸👼 🕊️🙏 🕊️🇺🇸👼 🕊️🙏 🕊️ 🇺🇸 👼 🕊️🇺🇸