Eastman memos

The Eastman memos, also known as the "coup memo", are documents by John Eastman, an American law professor retained by then-President Donald Trump, advancing the fringe legal theory that the Presiding Officer of the United States Senate, either the President of the Senate or the President pro tempore, has the unilateral authority to count, deliberate over, and reject certified state electors and electoral votes. This theoretical power could be used to nullify an election in order to produce an outcome personally desired by the senate president, potentially including: a result in his own party's favor; retaining himself as Vice President; if the senate president is himself a presidential candidate, to unilaterally make himself president-elect.

Trump and Eastman adhered to the memos in an unsuccessful campaign to pressure then-vice president Mike Pence into obstructing the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count and overturning the 2020 United States election of Joe Biden, in an attempt to have Trump retain power. The Trump campaign engaged Eastman with a formal retainer agreement signed December 5 for services in litigating the election outcome. The memos have been described as an instruction manual for a coup d'état.