The House committee investigating the January 6th attack subpoenaed Chapman University last week in an attempt to obtain documents – including emails – associated with John Eastman, the conservative lawyer and academic who crafted a dubious legal argument to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Eastman, who worked for Chapman for over twenty years before abruptly retiring last January, quickly initiated court proceedings to block the subpoena, claiming it violates, among other things, attorney-client privilege.

On Monday, a federal judge in California threw cold water on Eastman’s efforts. POLITICO explains:

In his order Monday, [Judge David] Carter said he intended to reject several of the key arguments Eastman put forward, including one claiming the committee lacks authority to issue its subpoena in the first place, as well as claims based on the First and Fourth Amendments.

The judge ordered Eastman and the House committee to work together to determine what documents from Chapman are relevant. Eastman must produce a log of documents he wants to withhold from investigators.

POLITICO adds:

The ruling is the latest in a string of court victories for the Jan. 6 select committee, which is now slated to learn, perhaps this week, the general subjects of key documents that Eastman had hoped to shield from the panel. Carter ordered the committee and Eastman to file public progress reports on Wednesday and Friday and to reconvene a hearing next week.

CNN reports that Monday’s court proceedings reveal the extent to which Eastman aided Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election:

A lawyer for Eastman told the judge during a court hearing Monday that his client had been working for Trump during a number of major controversial moments leading up to January 6: When he told state legislators on January 2 they needed to “fix this, this egregious conduct” that would put Joe Biden in the White House, when he was in the Willard Hotel with other Trump contacts, and when he met with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on January 3 about blocking the congressional certification of the 2020 vote.

The admissions from Eastman’s lawyer, Charles Burnham, are the clearest statements yet on how much Eastman was doing on Trump’s behalf — rather than on his own initiative — in the days leading up to January 6, 2021.”

That work was done pursuant to representation of the president,” Burnham said, when asked specifically about Eastman briefing hundreds of state legislators.