John Eastman, architect of Trump’s 2020 campaign stunt, speaks to a Catholic business group

Holquin called Legatus an “excellent organization” and said he met “wonderful people, exemplary Catholics” during his time as chaplain. However, it would be “very unwise” to introduce Eastman, he said, adding that the title of the talk was “obviously specious.”

Steve Dzida, a Catholic attorney in Orange County, said Eastman was a scandal for both the church and the legal profession. “He went off the rails,” Dzida said.

If the group gave him the opportunity to “confess his sins and express regret, I would have no problem with that,” the lawyer said. “If it is a platform to defend his actions, it certainly will not serve our faith.”

Orange County chapter meetings typically attract about 100 members, according to a business leader from the group interviewed by NCR.

Eastman, who was a member of Legatus, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and is founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. He taught at Chapman University Law School in Orange for most of his career, resigning in 2021 after the faculty called for his firing.

Also on his resume: running for California attorney general, fighting against legal marriage for same-sex couples and filing numerous legal briefs, many of which seek to undermine religious freedom or limit the scope of the so-called administrative state.

In 2020, Eastman was invited to join Trump’s legal team to help prepare for “anticipated post-election litigation,” according to a filing related to the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

California Judge Yvette Roland recommended in March of this year that Eastman be stripped of his authority to practice law in the state. (Currently, his law license is suspended in both California and Washington, D.C.) In her ruling, the judge said that Eastman had litigated lawsuits that intentionally misrepresented facts and that he had presented a “wild theory in favor of his client’s wishes.” “To keep the presidency.”

Drawing on fringe legal theories, Eastman drafted memos laying out scenarios in which then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject voters and keep Trump in office. His advice “acted like a snake in the ear” of the then-president, Pence’s lawyer wrote in an email to Eastman, as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Eastman also spoke at the rally before the riot, shouting false claims of voter fraud at the crowd.

Last month, several charges filed against Eastman in an election interference case in Georgia were dismissed, although six charges, including racketeering, remain. He faces charges of fraud, forgery and conspiracy in Arizona for helping overturn Trump’s loss in the state.

Eastman has pleaded not guilty to all charges and describes his critics as extreme leftists. At the National Conservatism Conference in D.C. this summer, Eastman encouraged attendees to “join this war” against the left.

To cover the costs of his legal battles, Eastman is trying to raise $1.5 million on GiveSendGo, a Christian fundraising site that allows white supremacists to solicit donations. As of October 4, Eastman had raised nearly $900,000.

Legatus (Latin for “ambassador” – with members tasked with being “ambassadors for Christ in the marketplace”) was founded in 1987 by conservative Catholic business tycoon Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza and Ave Maria University in Florida . Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is an ecclesiastical adviser to the group.

The organization, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with about 95 branches across the United States and Canada, is known for attracting wealthy Catholic leaders. Many members overlap with the Napa Institute, a conservative Catholic think tank founded by Timothy Busch.

Busch, a board member of the Catholic media conglomerate EWTN (dubbed “Catholic Fox News” by some critics) since last year and a supporter of Republican candidates, is a member of the Orange County chapter. He credits Legatus with changing his personal and business life for the better.

Leonard Leo, an engineer of the Supreme Court’s supermajority, had been a member of the Legatus since 2015. (Both men also have ties to Opus Dei, a clergy and lay organization that was recently indicted in Argentina for human trafficking crimes. Opus Dei leaders have denied the allegations.)

Barbara Born is a Catholic in Orange County, supports church reform groups and has ministered to homeless people in the area. Born said she sees Eastman’s election as part of a broader problem – that Legatus has a network of influence in the diocese while “ordinary people have little say.”

She noted how Legatus members, including Busch, helped plan and secure financing for the renovation of the former Crystal Cathedral into the Christ Cathedral campus in Garden Grove, Calif., where diocesan offices and EWTN’s West Coast studios are located .

EWTN, which has ties to anti-Pope Francis extremists and conservative donors, has decided not to air live coverage of the Democratic-led 2022 House Committee investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. The hearings were broadcast on all major US networks except Fox News.

The Legatus’ influence means that certain ideological views are reinforced, “and nothing is being done to compensate for this,” Born said.

John Limb is the former editor of Oregon Catholic Press, a Portland-based organization that publishes the missals used in many Catholic parishes in the United States.

When Legatus launched in Portland, Limb said he was eager to join a professional group dedicated to helping Catholic CEOs overcome business challenges in a way consistent with their faith.

“It quickly became clear,” Limb said, that “politics, not business, seemed to be Legatus’ primary focus. So I canceled my membership after a few years.”

Limb said he wasn’t surprised that Eastman was featured in the Orange County chapter, although he said calling the talk “nonpartisan” struck him as an oxymoron. He suspected that the chapter may be trying to protect its nonprofit status with the title or that it wants to “make his talk sound more palatable to the less conservative members of the chapter.”

Still, Eastman will likely “preach to the choir,” Limb said.

However, several members of the metaphorical choir were deeply concerned about the choice. Holquin said two people told him they were “enraged.”

Another member, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid jeopardizing his business relationships with others at Legatus, referred to part of the ruling by California Judge Roland.

“Eastman has demonstrated an unwillingness to acknowledge any ethical lapses in his actions, demonstrating his apparent inability to accept responsibility,” the judge wrote. “This lack of remorse and accountability poses a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical behavior, exacerbating the threat to the public.”

Reading this ruling, the person said in an email, “makes you wonder why a beloved Legatus chapter would make such a political statement at this time and place” instead of “promoting Catholic leadership in the business world.” , as it should.”

Inviting Eastman, Holquin added, does not promote “the common good, and that is what we should do as Catholics.”