Yesterday’s January 6 House select committee hearing, and last week’s, have sent the California Bar and courts overseeing attorney discipline an unmistakable message: It is time to follow their New York counterparts’ lead in Rudolph Giuliani’s case and suspend California attorney John Eastman’s license to practice law, pending further disciplinary proceedings. Otherwise, the public’s confidence in lawyers and in a self-regulating profession is in jeopardy.

The evidence about what Eastman did when he worked for then-President Donald Trump after the 2020 election is as bad, if not worse, than the evidence against Giuliani. According to federal District Judge David Carter’s March 28, 2022, order, the January 6 committee’s testimony and documents prove it likely that Eastman joined his client’s criminal conspiracy.