{"id":1684556,"date":"2022-10-12T06:53:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684556"},"modified":"2022-10-12T06:54:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:54:03","slug":"lawyers-say-jan-6-committee-harassing-targets-engaging-in-fishing-expedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawyers-say-jan-6-committee-harassing-targets-engaging-in-fishing-expedition\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers Say Jan. 6 Committee Harassing Targets, Engaging in &#8220;Fishing Expedition&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flawyers-say-jan-6-committee-harassing-targets-engaging-in-fishing-expedition%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684556&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>As the House Jan. 6 committee heads towards its final public hearing, lawyers are criticizing the panel for engaging in overreach and harassing targets through onerous document production requests.<\/p>\n<p>The comments were made as the committee is currently locked in a battle with former President Donald Trump\u2019s election attorney John Eastman on the production of 576 emails subpoenaed by the panel. The committee in an Oct. 3 <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840\/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.370.0_1.pdf\">filing<\/a> before a federal district court argued that Eastman was improperly holding back documents, under the guise of attorney-client privilege and attorney work-product privilege.<\/p>\n<p>Eastman, 62, helped prepare legal filings for Trump that contested the results of the 2020 presidential election in several states. The committee has contended, in part, that the filings were an attempt to overthrow the government.<\/p>\n<p>Eastman\u2019s attorneys, in response, accused the committee of attempting to undermine the attorney-client relationship.<\/p>\n<p>His lawyers further said that the court has already ruled on the matter and found in the vast majority of cases for Eastman\u2019s claim that attorney-client privilege prevented Eastman from disclosing the documents to the committee<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJudge Carter found Dr. Eastman\u2019s privilege logs perfectly adequate to dismiss a majority of the January 6 Committee\u2019s attempts to subvert attorney client privilege,\u201d said Eastman\u2019s attorneys from Burnham &#038; Gorokhov <a href=\"https:\/\/www.burnhamgorokhov.com\/statement-in-response-to-october-4-2022-filing-by-january-6-committee-in-eastman-v-thompson-et-al\/\">said<\/a> in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>As proof of Eastman\u2019s alleged attempts to improperly shield documents from investigators, the Jan. 6 committee released an email between Trump\u2019s election lawyers in which they joked about Trump.<\/p>\n<p>One of the email\u2019s authors, former Trump lawyer Bruce Marks, accused the committee of releasing the exchange in an attempt to embarrass Trump\u2019s lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time of the emails on December 30 and 31, 2020, Professor Eastman, Ken Chesebro, and I were representing President Trump in litigating a U.S. Supreme Court petition filed on December 23,\u201d Marks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/10\/03\/jan6-committee-eastman-improperly-shielded-emails-investigators-00060162\">told<\/a> Politico. \u201cThese emails were part of a privileged exchange. Regardless of whether specific tongue in cheek emails were protected by the attorney-client privilege, they were clearly protected by First Amendment rights of political association and free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018Fishing Expedition\u2019<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>One lawyer who has defended a half-a-dozen people who have been charged as a result of actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6. applauded Eastman and his attorneys for pushing back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Committee\u2019s endless speculation does not trump the power of attorney-client privilege,\u201d attorney Joseph McBride told The Epoch Times in an email. McBride has a reputation for fiercely criticizing the government for its detention and prosecution of people regarding the events of Jan. 6.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore people need to stand up to these communist psychopaths. I, for one, am glad that John Eastman is doing it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Another lawyer who is suing the government over the seizure of phone records cautions said that the dispute between Eastman and the committee was only a small part of the panel\u2019s excesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think [Eastman\u2019s lawyers] were basically trying to show the court that that was a claim of attorney-client privilege that applied to that email. But the larger issues in the Jan. 6 Committee is they are overreaching,\u201d Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a conservative watchdog group, told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>The NLPC is suing the select committee over phone records of a Jan. 6 protest organizer that the panel demanded in their probe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re not respecting that attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege. And even so, some of this is first amendment protected communications that we have,\u201d Kamenar said.<\/p>\n<p>To Kamenar, the committee has exceeded its authority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think at this point, it\u2019s just a matter of a fishing expedition and harassment, as I see it, and there\u2019s no more need for any other emails from other people,\u201d he said about the continued investigation of the panel, adding that there are\u00a0no new facts being discovered by the committee.<\/p>\n<p>McBride said that the continuation of the committee is just being used to hurt so-called MAGA-Republicans, without really investigating what happened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe committee is, without question, suppressing exculpatory evidence. It is also selectively editing videos to proffer a narrative to the public that caricatures all MAGA Republicans in the light of domestic extremism,\u201d McBride said, noting that the same members of Congress gave Hillary Clinton a pass when she \u201cdestroyed 33,000 emails\u201d she improperly kept on a private email server when she was secretary of state.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Electoral Reforms<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to Kamenar, the dispute over privilege claims is obscuring an obvious purpose of the Jan. 6 Committee hearings, which is to make it toxic to oppose proposed legislative reforms that would make it harder to decertify presidential results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the purpose of the committee: Rep. Liz Cheney has a bill that would reform the Electoral Count Act, which is also co-sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren,\u201d said Kamenar.<\/p>\n<p>In September, the House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/house-passes-election-law-bill_4744924.html\">passed<\/a> the Presidential Electoral Reform Act, introduced by Jan. 6 Committee members Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Lofgren (D-Calif.), that makes a number of changes to the 1887 Electoral Count Act. These include making the vice president\u2019s role in election certification a ceremonial one, and increasing the number of lawmakers needed to sustain an objection to a state\u2019s reported electoral slate.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Matter of Politics <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Kamenar believes that the committee previously postponed hearings because of Hurricane Ian not out of sympathy for the victims but because the networks were busy covering the hurricane and wouldn\u2019t give the hearings top billing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey want to make sure they\u2019re in primetime and get maximum TV coverage. So it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s a matter of politics there. And also, the Committee is trying to be assistant prosecutor to the Justice Department for the criminal investigation\u201d into Jan. 6, Kamenar said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, McBride contended that the committee\u2019s rush-to-judgment of the selective release of information wouldn\u2019t stand up in a real court of law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe January 6th Committee is no different from a counsel of 17th-century puritans looking to burn witches in Salem,\u201d McBride said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Committee is not looking for the truth: Instead, it seeks to identify, prosecute, and burn at the stake, anyone who dares to question the Biden regime\u2019s action,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times has reached out to the Jan. 6 committee for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-john-ransom\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/05\/04\/WEB_JohnRansom.jpg\" alt=\"John Ransom\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>John Ransom is a freelance reporter covering U.S. news for The Epoch Times with offices in Washington, D.C., and Asia.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the House Jan. 6 committee heads towards its final public hearing, lawyers are criticizing the panel for engaging in overreach and harassing targets through onerous document production requests.The comments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1684556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}