Taking the stand in his still-ongoing California disbarment trial on Wednesday, fascist MAGA lawyer John Eastman asserted attorney client privilege when an investigator asked specifically if he had any discussions with Trump or his minions about one still-murky subplot in Congressional GOP plans to object to the electoral college certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election:

Why the hell did Old Man Senator Charles Grassley announce on January 5th, 2021 that he was going to preside over the session rather than Vice President Mike Pence, only to almost immediately “clarify” that Grassley, as the Senate President Pro Tempore, was just saying it in case Pence was unavailable? Politico reports that Eastman only deepened the mystery by telling the Bar investigator that the client he’s asserting privilege for is none other than Inmate P01135809 himself.

Both Eastman and fellow co-conspirator Kenny Chesebro had looked into getting Grassley in the role, and Politico notes it’s not so extraordinary for the President Pro Tempore to fill-in for the Vice President on Electoral College vote day, having happened several times in history. Still for Grassley to have asserted that he was going to be the one running the show only to quickly walk it back and then for Eastman to dodge potentially further incriminating himself and his fat former client speaks to another fresh line of criminal liability for Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith to pursue if (more likely when) he drops the hammer on Eastman. For his part Grassley was not among the Republican Senators who voted to object to certifying before or after the MAGA insurrection disrupted the session nor does it appear he planned to do so even as he claimed he would preside.