Chapman professor retires amid anger over remarks at Trump rally

After publicly supporting efforts to overturn the presidential election, a Chapman University law professor and former dean resigned.

Chapman University President Daniele C. Struppa announced on Wednesday that John C. Eastman and the school had agreed Eastman would retire, effective immediately.

“Chapman and Dr. Eastman have agreed not to engage in legal actions of any kind, including any claim of defamation that may currently exist, as both parties move forward,” the statement said.

In an email on Thursday, Eastman said he would shift his research and litigation work to the Claremont Institute, where he is a senior fellow and director of its Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.

Eastman spoke at the “Save America” rally alongside President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani on Jan. 6, hours before a mob intruded into the Capitol. Eastman said in his speech that voting machines were rigged.

“It is with mixed feelings that I announce my retirement from Chapman University today,” Eastman said in a statement Thursday. “Apart from prominent visitorships at the University of San Diego and the University of Colorado Boulder, my entire academic career has been as a professor and dean at the Chapman University Fowler School of Law.”

In December, more than 150 Chapman faculty members signed a letter accusing Eastman of attacking American democracy after he filed a legal brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to block four states from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.

In a new letter issued last week, faculty members and members of the Board of Trustees explicitly called for Eastman to be fired, accusing him of having a role in the intrusion into the Capitol and saying he should not be allowed to teach law or hold the honor of an endowed chair.

The letter had 172 signatures as of Thursday.

Eastman said he participated in a peaceful rally 2 miles from the events at the Capitol. He denounced claims that he had sought to harm American democracy, maintaining that his election fraud statements were based on facts and that the letter’s signatories are not “well-versed in the constitutional questions at issue.”

After the Capitol intrusion, Struppa declined calls to fire Eastman, saying that he must abide by the school’s faculty manual.

“When you are asking me to simply fire a faculty member without that, you are asking me to act as if I am indeed above the law,” Struppa said. “I continue to think this would be a terrible mistake for the institution, and I am troubled that so many are willing to sacrifice our process and our rules in order to protect our reputation.”

But Eastman said that the signatories to the letter had “created such a hostile environment for me that I no longer wish to be a member of the Chapman faculty, and am therefore retiring from my position, effective immediately.”