Federal Agents Seized Phone of John Eastman, Key Figure in Jan. 6 Plan

Federal brokers armed with a search warrant have seized the cellphone of John Eastman, a lawyer who suggested former President Donald J. Trump on a key ingredient of the trouble to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election, based on a courtroom submitting by Mr. Eastman on Monday.

The submitting, a movement to get well property from the federal government, mentioned that F.B.I. brokers in New Mexico, performing on behalf of the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, stopped Mr. Eastman as he was leaving a restaurant final Wednesday and seized his iPhone. A duplicate of the warrant included as an exhibit in Mr. Eastman’s submitting mentioned that the cellphone can be taken to the inspector normal’s forensic lab in Northern Virginia.

The seizure of Mr. Eastman’s cellphone final week is the newest proof that the Justice Department is intensifying its legal investigation into the assorted strands of Mr. Trump’s efforts to stay in energy after he was defeated in his bid for re-election.

Mr. Eastman, a California legislation professor, helped develop and promote a plan to justify having Vice President Mike Pence block or delay certification of the Electoral College outcomes establishing Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman pressured Mr. Pence to place the plan into motion when Mr. Pence presided over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mr. Pence’s refusal to go together with the scheme helped gas the violence that overwhelmed the Capitol that day, and have become a bloody image of Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert the result of the election.

Mr. Eastman was additionally instrumental in advising Mr. Trump to create purported slates of electors backing Mr. Trump in key swing states that had gained by Mr. Biden.

The seizure of Mr. Eastman’s cellphone seems to have come on the identical day that federal brokers additionally seized the phone of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who was central to Mr. Trump’s makes an attempt to coerce the nation’s high prosecutors into backing his false claims of fraud in the election.

Both Mr. Eastman and Mr. Clark have been central characters in public hearings this month by the House choose committee on Jan. 6. But the search warrants for his or her telephones point out that the Justice Department can also be now in communications the 2 males might have had pertaining to a broad legal investigation into Mr. Trump’s numerous makes an attempt to remain in energy.