May 10, 2022 09:20 AM UTC

Eastman Used CU-Funded Email, Travel For Coup Plotting

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

A new disclosure in the ongoing scandal surrounding the University of Colorado’s former visiting conservative scholar John Eastman, who is under investigation by the House Select Committee looking into the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, as reported today by the Denver Post’s Elizabeth Hernandez:

John Eastman, a lawyer who represented Donald Trump following the president’s 2020 election loss, used his University of Colorado email account while serving as a visiting professor in Boulder to advise a Pennsylvania lawmaker on how to challenge that state’s electors, according to records submitted to Congress…

Eastman, CU Boulder’s visiting professor of conservative thought and policy during the 2020-2021 academic year, has come under increasing scrutiny for his role in advising Trump on how to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. A federal judge in California ruled in March that Trump and Eastman likely committed crimes in their efforts to overturn the election.

In addition to demonstrating how Eastman advised Pennsylvania state Rep. Russ Diamond on challenging that state’s results, the emails show CU Boulder reimbursed Eastman for around $500 for a trip he took to Philadelphia shortly after the November 2020 election to participate in an academic conference put on by his department, the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization.

Where crucially,

It was during that visit to Philadelphia that Eastman’s role in advising Trump on how to remain in office began, The New York Times reported last year.

That Eastman was on the University of Colorado’s payroll while he advised ex-President Donald Trump on strategies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election is not new information, but the use of CU email and reimbursement for the trip to Philadelphia during which Eastman became a central figure in the 2020 coup plot is news to us. The disclosure of these communications directly related to the plot through CU’s email system, apparently unknown to the Select Committee investigating January 6th, certainly does warrant additional investigation by the CU Board of Regents.

And once again, the CU Regent who volunteered to field all the questions about Eastman’s relationship with the university, Hiedi Heidi Ganahl, needs to start answering some. How did Ganahl volunteer to own John Eastman, you ask? It started with her effusive praise for Eastman, which came even after he was condemned nationwide for an op-ed suggesting Kamala Harris didn’t have the citizenship qualifications to serve as vice president. Ganahl then closed the deal on ownership of Eastman by running for governor.

With every new John Eastman headline, Heidi Ganahl’s silence gets louder.