Law prof. who rallied Capitol crowd with Giuliani and questioned Kamala Harris’ citizenship will retire
The California law professor who drew outrage for his fiery speech with Rudy Giuliani before the Capitol riot and his unfounded attacks on Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ citizenship has agreed to retire.
Chapman University announced John Eastman’s departure Wednesday night after the private college in Orange County previously condemned Eastman’s remarks but stopped short of firing him.
“Dr. Eastman’s departure closes this challenging chapter for Chapman and provides the most immediate and certain path forward,” Chapman President Daniele Struppa said in a statement.
“Chapman and Dr. Eastman have agreed not to engage in legal actions of any kind, including any claim of defamation that may currently exist, as both parties move forward,” he said.
Eastman appeared on the rally stage with Rudy Giuliani last week and made false and incendiary claims that election officials tapped “a secret folder” in voting machines “to put Vice President Biden over the finish line.”
He then demanded Vice President Pence reject certification of the election results later that same day.
“We know there was fraud, traditional fraud that occurred,” he yelled to the crowd, despite judges around the country repeatedly rejecting such claims.
“This is bigger than President Trump, it is the very essence of our Republican form of government, and it has to be done. And anybody that is not willing to stand up to do it, does not deserve to be in the office. It is that simple,” he said, whipping up the crowd that would soon storm Congress.
Eastman previously wrote an opinion piece for Newsweek that claimed Harris was ineligible to become president because her parents were immigrants from Jamaica and India.
Newsweek later admitted it failed to foresee how the essay would be “weaponized” by the right to fuel racism and xenophobia.
After Eastman’s Capitol remarks last week, Struppa initially said his hands were tied.
“I am not the Emperor of Chapman University, nor I am the Supreme Leader of Chapman University. I am the president of the university, and as such, I am bound by laws and processes that are clearly spelled out in our faculty manual,” he said.
“The manual says that if a jury finds a faculty member to be guilty of a felony, or if they are disbarred, THEN the university can dismiss them. The university has no right to substitute itself for these formal bodies,” he said.
When he later announced Eastman’s retirement, Struppa said he would make “no further statements.”
