Eastman used these slates as a premise for his argument that the result of the election was disputed. However, Eastman acknowledged on multiple occasions—both before and after January 6th—that these "dual slates" had no legal significance. In an email sent on December 19, 2020, Eastman wrote that the seven Trump/Pence slates of electors "will be dead on arrival in Congress" "unless those electors get a certification from their State Legislators."[126] Of course, this certification never came and there was no basis for any action on the "dual slates."[127]
Nevertheless, on December 23, 2020, Eastman used the existence of these slates as a justification for the Vice President to act, in an email to Boris Epshteyn, a Trump Campaign lawyer. "The fact that we have multiple slates of electors demonstrates the uncertainty of either. That should be enough."[128]
Again after January 6th, Eastman acknowledged in an email that the fake electors' documents were invalid and irrelevant.[129] "Alas," he said, "[T]hey had no authority" because "[n]o legislature certified them."[130]
Eastman concluded his memo by asserting that his plan was "BOLD, Certainly," but he attempted to justify it, arguing that "this Election was Stolen by a strategic Democrat plan to systematically flout existing election laws for partisan advantage; we're no longer playing by Queensbury Rules, therefore."[131]
Eastman repeated what he wrote in his earlier, shorter memo, claiming that Vice President Pence should act "without asking for permission— either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court."[132] Eastman claimed "that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter."[133] Eastman ended on an especially hyperbolic note. If the election's results were not upended, "then the sovereign people no longer control the direction of their government, and we will have ceased to be a self-governing people. The stakes could not be higher."[134]
January 4, 2021: President Trump and Eastman Meet with Pence and His Staff in the Oval Office.
Eastman Argues in an Oval Office Meeting that the Vice President can Reject Electoral Votes or that He Can Delay the Certification, Sending the Electoral Votes Back to the States. Late in the afternoon of January 4, 2021, President Trump summoned Vice President Pence to the Oval Office for a showdown.[135] President Trump and Eastman sought to convince the Vice President that he had the power to refuse to count the certified electors from several States won by former Vice President Biden.
Short and Jacob attended with the Vice President.[136] Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was only briefly present, leaving as the meeting started.[137]
