Eastman was one of the people who tried to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. On January 5, 2021, during an Oval Office meeting, Eastman incorrectly told Vice President Mike Pence that he had the constitutional ability to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory. Pence did not end up doing this. Eastman sent a six-point plan to Republican senator Mike Lee, asking for Pence to not accept the electors from seven states to keep Trump as president, which Lee then rejected.
Eastman gave a speech on January 6, 2021, during the White House Trump rally, before the 2021 United States Capitol attack, and then proceeded to ask Vice President Pence to violate the Electoral Count Act and stop the certification of the results of the election, through Greg Jacob, Pence's legal counsel. Federal judge David O. Carter on March 28, 2022, found Eastman and Trump more likely than not to have "dishonestly conspired to obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021".
↑Cheney, Kyle (March 11, 2022). "How Pence used 43 words to shut down Trump allies' election subversion on Jan. 6". Politico. Retrieved June 9, 2022. When Pence refused to entertain the alternate electors during Congress' session certifying Biden as the next president, Trump supporters encroaching on the Capitol became furious. Within an hour, hundreds had breached the building, with some chanting 'hang Mike Pence.' ... Amid the chaos, Eastman exchanged tense emails with Jacob. Pence's counsel accused Eastman, in one remarkably blunt missive, of being 'a serpent in the ear of the president of the United States.'