Editor's Note: This commentary is printed in the public interest. It is an example of free speech protected by the Constitution of the United States.
When British settlers arrived on the American continent in the early 1600s, they brought with them many beliefs, customs, and pursuits. As the colonies became established and grew, so, too, did America’s nascent system of justice become established, owing its foundation in large part to British common law.
But many of the laws originating in the British system did not sit well with American colonizers because, on their face, they ran afoul of the very principles of liberty that drove the settlers to leave Britain and colonize America in the first instance.
The law of seditious libel was just such a law. Seditious libel in the British system was designed to protect the Crown and the government from criticism or statements that provoked dissatisfaction.
Under such a scheme, truth was not a defense to a charge of libel. Thus, a statement that damaged the government or a government official – even if true – would result in a conviction. Indeed, the maxim invoked by the law of seditious libel was, “the greater the truth, the greater the libel.”
Sadly, and quite unbelievably, we find our nation today once again having to fend off discredited, tyrannical legal theories being advanced by government officials and lawfare radicals who seem bent on resurrecting the law of seditious libel.
It is a concept at the heart of my indictments in Georgia and Arizona, my disbarment in California and the targeting of me by Special Counsel Jack Smith as an un-indicted co-conspirator in his federal cast against former President Donald Trump.
As was the case in the 1700s, truth is not a defense.
In representing President Trump to bring forth concerns about potential illegalities and improprieties in the 2020 presidential election contest, those in power at the Department of Justice and various Democrat prosecution offices have determined that my “crimes” are greater because the truth I spoke in public and in legal filings was greater.
And so, they have come after me with charges of conspiracy, election interference, orchestrating a corrupt enterprise, lying, impersonating a public official, forgery, tampering with a public record and other offenses.
So far, truth has not been a useful defense
My legal team brought forth the truth of my representation of President Trump in the California disbarment trial – likely the longest and most expensive in history. Much of this truth was blocked from coming into evidence because of objections from the prosecution. What was admitted was largely rejected by the judge in her ruling recommending that I be disbarred.
My team is appealing, but to a significant extent the case has already had a major effect because I can no longer practice law in California while I appeal.
It also has contributed to the over $1 million in legal fees I’ve been forced to endure, and the more than $2 million in additional expenses I am facing going forward. I need your immediate financial support of my Legal Defense Fund so that I can fight the lawfare radicals who are determined to ruin me and effectively reimpose seditious libel laws against conservatives.
One of the first instances of a government official in America seeking to apply the law of seditious libel against a colonizer occurred in 1735 when a publisher, John Peter Zenger, published articles critical of New York’s governor, William Cosby, who had been appointed to office by Britain’s King George II.
As Zenger’s trial approached, Cosby hand-picked two judges who determined that Zenger’s statements were libelous. The only issue for the jury to decide was whether Zenger had published the statements, a fact that he had admitted.
Zenger was defended by Alexander Hamilton, one of the colony’s foremost lawyers. The jurors, naturally, were all colonists like Zenger. It turned out that few if any of them were in favor of a tyrannical law that protected the government from critical statements. And so, in a shocking result, the jury acquitted Zenger of the charges.
The Zenger trial helped give rise to the concept of freedom of the press, but it did not put an end to the use of seditious libel. Indeed, it was incorporated into two laws in the early 1900s, the Sedition Act and the Espionage Act, and was used to punish protestors speaking out against World War I.
One of those, Socialist Eugene Debs, was convicted under the Sedition Act and forced to run his 1920 presidential campaign on behalf of the Socialist Party from his prison cell.
Does that remind you of anything today?
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The greater the truth, the greater the libel. That is the proposition that prosecutors like Fani Willis in Georgia and Kris Mayes in Arizona hope to establish in their upcoming trials against me.
They are counting on partisan politics and Anti-Trump sentiment carrying the day. I am counting on the truth emerging. And I am praying for American patriots to be jurors with the same courage of those who acquitted John Peter Zenger back in 1735.
The truth should set one free, and the truth is on my side.
Free speech is priceless, but it is not free. In my case, speaking truth to power in speeches and legal filings has cost me well over $1 million in legal fees, and I’m looking at an additional $2 million or more in expenses before all is said and done.
I am being prevented by the California State Bar judge from practicing law in California while I appeal her disbarment recommendation and thus cannot earn income as a lawyer to contribute to my own defense. It is my urgent hope and prayer that people of goodwill like you will step forward with a generous emergency financial donation to my defense fund.
Your emergency donation to my legal defense fund is urgently needed if I am to have the resources needed to fight. Please consider a donation today of whatever you are able to do – $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or even $1,500 or more.
The American founding was a movement driven by a thirst for freedom and liberty, and a determination to put an end to government tyranny. The law of seditious libel is an artifact of tyrannical rule designed to protect the powerful from criticism. It had no legitimate place in American law in 1735 when patriotic jurors ignored the demands of King George’s hand-picked governor of New York to orchestrate the conviction of a critic, and it should have no place today as a tool of the lawfare left to punish conservatives like me who challenge the powerful and the ruling class to insist that American elections be conducted according to the law and our Constitution.
Thank you for your friendship and prayers. My family and I will be extremely grateful for any additional financial help you can provide as we work to defend my reputation, and fight to restore the rule of law to our national life.
Note and Disclosure: The material, edited for posting, is Copyright © 2023 John Eastman Legal Defense Fund, LLC. Patrick B. McGuigan, editor emeritus for CityNews, adapted this for posting. Pat has known John Eastman since 1980 and considers him a friend. The Eastmans and McGuigans have remained in touch since McGuigan left Washington, D.C. in 1990, after working there for a decade. Eastman's address for support is: John Eastman Legal Defense Fund, LLC, P.O. Box 32654, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87594, United States.
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