He doesn’t appear happy about this.
Prominent Trump campaign lawyer, John Eastman, who was instrumental in pushing for the 2020 Presidential election to be overturned, claimed in a Monday (June 27) court filing that the FBI seized his iPhone and frisked him outside a restaurant when they executed a search warrant.
After last week’s search warrant, Eastman, a recurring feature in the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearings, filed a motion in the U.S. District Court in New Mexico to have his property returned. His motion claimed the warrant was unlawful because it was vague, not specific, and without probable cause, a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.
In his motion, he also claimed his Fifth Amendment rights had been violated since agents urged him to unlock his iPhone with Face ID, a move that resulted in him effectively testifying.
In the motion, Eastman’s lawyers state, “By its very breadth, the warrant intrudes on significant privacy interests, both of [Eastman] and of others whose communications with him are accessible on the seized cell phone.”
The motion also claims the phone obtained by agents held emails and messages relating to Jan. 6 and the Select Committee’s investigation into the matter but were protected by attorney-client privilege.
According to reports, Eastman’s warrant was executed on Tuesday (June 21), a day before the early morning search at Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
Clark had allegedly attempted to strong-arm the country’s most senior prosecutors into supporting the former President’s false claims of widespread election fraud, and had subsequently been considered by Trump to take up the role of Attorney General.
Whether the warrant and search were linked hasn’t been revealed.
