John Eastman, the attorney behind President Trump’s last-ditch strategy to seize a second term, said he had his phone seized by federal agents last week, Politico reports. Eastman said in a New Mexico federal court filing that he was confronted by agents when leaving a restaurant. He is asking a judge to order his phone returned. “The federal agents identified themselves as FBI agents, but they appeared to be executing a warrant issued at the behest of the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General,” said Eastman’s lawyer, Charles Burnham.
A legal adviser to Trump’s campaign, Eastman has been a central figure in the Capitol riot committee’s case that the former president attempted to block the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021. A federal judge in California has ruled that Eastman and Trump “likely” entered a criminal conspiracy to obstruct the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6. The search of Eastman’s phone comes amid a flurry of activity by federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6 attack and efforts by Trump allies to authorize false slates of electors as part of a plan to overturn the 2020 election. Last week, subpoenas were served on a slew of those false electors.