Former Trump's Lawyer Phone Seized As Part Of DOJ's Election Probe

John Eastman, former lawyer for ex-President Donald Trump, is at the center of the House committee's investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

And now, a lawsuit filed by Eastman's attorney revealed that authorities last Wednesday seized his cell phone as part of the Justice Department's criminal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election's results, reported ABC News. Eastman's attorney claimed in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New Mexico, that the agents served the warrant on him last Wednesday evening while he was stepping out from a restaurant. He was allegedly frisked and his iPhone was seized. It was also claimed that the agents made him provide biometric data to unlock his phone. The lawsuit is seeking to have the phone returned to Eastman, who is a right-wing lawyer.

The warrant for his phone's seizure was issued at "the behest of the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General," said the lawsuit.

Following the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, Eastman drafted a plan for then-President Trump to cling to power. He did so by falsely claiming that then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject legitimate electors during the certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Meanwhile, the Jan. 6 committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, according to ABC News. Previously it revised its schedule to postpone the hearings for "several weeks." The Tuesday hearing will begin at 1 p.m., and members will "present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony."

The new hearing comes after British filmmaker Alex Holder, who had access to Trump, his family and close aides around the Jan. 6 riot, sat for an interview with the committee last week. He handed over footage which includes interviews with Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Pence.

Committee members have also expressed interest in speaking to former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Ginni Thomas, who is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Panel members are yet to disclose a witness for the new hearing.

The committee's last public hearing was closed by Chair Bennie Thompson. He previewed the focus of hearings to come, and called the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Trump's "backup plan of stopping the transfer of power" if he couldn't get away with a "political coup."