CU Boulder visiting scholar John Eastman criticized for election fraud claims

University of Colorado Boulder visiting scholar John Eastman drew condemnation from the campus community Wednesday for making unfounded claims of widespread election fraud while speaking at a Washington, D.C., rally in support of President Donald Trump.

With Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, by his side, Eastman repeatedly claimed that fraud occurred during the Nov. 3 general election and the Tuesday runoff election in Georgia. Rioters later stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to stop lawmakers from confirming President-Elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.

“You know the old way was to have a bunch of ballots sitting in a box under the floor and when you needed more, you pulled them out in the dark of night,” Eastman said at the Wednesday morning rally. “They put those ballots in a secret folder in the machines. Sitting there waiting, until they know how many they need, and then the machine, after the close of polls … we now know who’s voted and we know who hasn’t. And I can now, in that machine, match those unvoted ballots with an unvoted voter and put them together in the machine.”

Eastman did not provide any evidence of fraud, and claimed that when ballot returns increased after most votes had been counted, it was because “they were unloading the ballots from that secret folder and matching them, matching them to the unvoted voter and voila, we have enough votes to barely get over the finish line.”

Eastman is the 2020-2021 visiting scholar for conservative thought and policy at CU Boulder’s Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization and a professor at Chapman University. He has previously drawn ire for a Newsweek editorial questioning Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ citizenship and has served as an attorney for Trump following the Nov. 3 election.

In a statement, CU Boulder said that Eastman “continued to make baseless and unfounded statements regarding the 2020 Presidential election at an event in Washington, D.C.”

The university described Eastman’s representation of Trump and his appearance at the rally as personal conduct.

“Professor Eastman does not act in any legal capacity to represent CU Boulder’s interests. Professor Eastman’s representation of a client and political activities are not within the course and scope of his duties at CU Boulder, and the campus does not exercise any oversight over them. His statements today do not in any sense reflect CU Boulder’s position,” the statement said.

In a one-sentence email to the Daily Camera, Eastman said the university’s statement is defamatory “because the claim that my statements were baseless and unfounded is patently false.”

Other system and campus community members gave harsher condemnations of Eastman’s claims.

The Camera sought comment from the nine members of CU’s Board of Regents as well as President Mark Kennedy. Regents Jack Kroll, Linda Shoemaker and Irene Griego responded with statements denouncing Eastman’s claims.

“This man is not one of ours. We should not protect his free speech/academic freedom to attempt to destroy our democracy,” Shoemaker wrote. “Eastman is Chapman University’s problem. We need to remove him from his temporary appointment on our Boulder campus before he does serious harm to CU’s reputation. And it is our responsibility to figure out how to do that.”

Kroll described Eastman as “a mind so focused on belligerence instead of stimulating intellectual thought” and said that his association with the Benson Center “embarrasses the legacy of two of CU’s most impactful 21st Century leaders — Bruce and Marcy Benson.”

“Thankfully, whomever bonked their head before deciding to hire this guy retained enough clarity of mind to include the word ‘visiting’ in his title,” Kroll continued.

Visiting scholars are chosen by a search committee of voting faculty members as well as external, non-voting advisory members, according to the Benson Center website.

In an email, CU Boulder History Professor Susan Kent said Eastman’s statements on Wednesday “go beyond the bizarre into the realm of the truly crazed.”

“The failure of CU Boulder’s leadership to condemn his attacks on our democracy is not only embarrassing and humiliating; it constitutes an abdication of the moral responsibility we expect of those who run our institution and represent our faculty, students and staff,” she wrote.

CU Boulder senior Alex Edwards echoed Kent’s sentiments.

“That man is an embarrassment to the University of Colorado. Our university is better than that and he besmirches our name by spewing lies and falsehoods,” Edwards said in a message.

Benson Center Director Daniel Jacobson declined to comment when reached by email Wednesday.

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