Ex-Trump attorney John Eastman advised author on anti-abortion SCOTUS fiction novel: report

17 July 2023

Former President Donald Trump lawyer John Eastman is credited for advising author James Scott Bell's 2022 "anti-abortion legal thriller," Deadlock, The Daily Beast exclusively reports.

Known for his role in supporting Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Eastman is also the former dean of Los Angeles-based Chapman University Law school.

The Beast reports:

The heart of the legal drama in the book—what Eastman is credited with advising—centers on what goes on behind the Supreme Court’s white marble columns.

At an oral argument, the justices take turns posing questions about the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which forbids the government from making laws 'respecting an establishment of religion.'

Furthermore, The Beast notes, "Eastman's role in the book first came to" the news outlet's "attention when Bell last month donated $100 to the disgraced attorney's legal defense fund, which has raised nearly half a million dollars since its inception two years ago."

The author wrote, "Praying for you, John. You helped me with my novel about the Supreme Court years ago. Godspeed."

The Daily Beast contacted Bell, who according to the report "was reluctant to respond to questions about Eastman's role in the book," before later saying "he came up with the plot and legal angles on his own, noting that he's a retired lawyer."

He insisted, "That all came from me."

Regarding the plot, The Beast reports "the novel's protagonist is Associate Justice Millicent Mannings Hollander, the Supreme Court's powerful swing vote who gets her life turned upside down when she nearly dies, sees a brief vision of hell, and is forced to confront her new reality while recovering back home in rural California with her Bible-thumping mom."

Additionally, "Capitol Hill is alive with corruption as the president and a powerful senator are scheming to make her chief justice—but only on the condition that she’ll remain a liberal bulwark."

The judge, who goes by Millie, "starts to fall for a Christian preacher in jeans and a leather toolbelt whose 'tanned arms, glistening with perspiration, were strong,' and "She just sits around while he tells her, 'I think our country has fallen into spiritual darkness over the last fifty years. A large part of that has to do with our courts.'

The Beast notes, "This preacher also served time in federal prison for terrorizing abortion providers."

According to the report, the former Trump attorney "is the first person whom author James Scott Bell thanks in his acknowledgments," writing, "Professor John Eastman of Chapman University School of Law, former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, walked me through much of the Supreme Court's day-to-day operations as well as many of the legal aspects of the novel. One of the 'smart guys,' he is a credit to his students, his school, and the enterprise of American law."

Eastman told The Beast during a phone call that "he doesn't remember reading the book, but said he advised Bell on 'internal workings of the court,' like how cases make their way up the chain and how justices debate issues behind closed doors."

He said, "The plot line seemed interesting,” though "he'd just read a summary of the book on Amazon before the phone call, which he recorded."

According to The Beast, Eastman is "currently on trial against the California bar, which is trying to take away his professional credentials for threatening the nation’s democracy."

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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