Trump's Coup Memo Lawyer Invoked 5th Amendment 146 Times When Asked About The Memo

John Eastman, the infamous lawyer that wrote the "Coup Memo" on how Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 election, is fighting to block the release of his emails from his former employer to the January 6th Committee. And during a recent court hearing, after he admitted that he wrote the memo, he then had to invoke the 5th Amendment 146 times to avoid implicating himself in potentially criminal activity. Ring of Fire's Farron Couins explains what's happening.

Become a member today!

Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!

Find our merchandise at Teespring

Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content!

Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel

Be sociable! Follow us on:

Follow more of our stories at

Subscribe to our podcast

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

In a recent court hearing John Eastman, the Trump lawyer who authored the infamous coup memo outlining ways in which former vice president Mike Pence could have overturned the 2020 election, in a recent court hearing Eastman had to plead the fifth amendment 146 times so as to not incriminate himself in potentially criminal activity. Here's what happened. Eastman had been employed with Chapman University and as part of the ongoing probe into the January 6th Capitol riot and everything surrounding it, Democrats on the committee subpoenaed the records, his emails from Chapman University. They wanted to see if there's anything in there that may be related to the attempts to overturn the election. Well, Eastman decides he's gonna fight it. Chapman University, you cannot turn over my emails. We do not want those released, which is usually a pretty good indicator that there's something in there he doesn't want us to see.

So the whole matter went to court and after admitting in court that he did, in fact, author that coup memo, he then had to plead the fifth 146 times. Now, that's not as impressive as Eric Trump pleading the fifth amendment over 500 times when he spoke to New York investigators. But 146 is still a lot. I mean, that's roughly double the amount of times that Rick Scott had to plead the fifth amendment so that he didn't implicate him in the massive healthcare fraud that the company he was running committed. Now pleading the fifth amendment cannot be used against you in a court hearing. In fact, most of the time, if a defendant pleads the fifth amendment, or even a plaintiff pleads the fifth amendment, the judge instructs everyone you cannot listen to that. You know, you gotta pretend it didn't even happen. Sometimes you can even get evidence thrown out that way. You can get whole testimonies dismissed because of pleading the fifth. So Eastman knows what he's doing, but is it gonna save him?

Maybe in court, but certainly not in the court of public of opinion and to be honest, he probably doesn't stand a chance trying to hide these emails from the committee in court anyway. If Donald Trump can't keep his records from going to the committee, if the Supreme Court won't even go along with that, I seriously doubt that Eastman stands any chance whatsoever to prevent his emails from going to that select committee. But again, the court of public opinion is also very important here. And while we may not get to see those documents, the fact that he had to plead the fifth amendment 146 times tells us that there are things he wants to hide here. There are things he doesn't want us to know, not just in the emails, but in his own testimony. And while the fifth amendment is in fact vital, we have to support it and we have to respect it. Learning that these individuals are relying so heavily on the fifth amendment so they don't go to jail, tells us a lot, even without a prosecution about who these kinds of people really are.