This is the third guilty sentence in a week for former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who entered a guilty plea on Tuesday in the Georgia election subversion case and agreed to work with Fulton County prosecutors.
Jenna Ellis entered a guilty plea to one count of helping to spread false statements at an ad hoc hearing in Atlanta. This charge stems from the election lies that Ellis and other attorneys for Donald Trump sold to lawmakers in Georgia in December 2020.
Jenna Ellis was given a five-year probationary sentence and mandated to make $5,000 in restitution.
Jenna Ellis apologized to the judge in a heartfelt statement she gave on Tuesday after entering a guilty plea and acknowledging her involvement in Trump’s historic attempts to rig the 2020 election.
I would not have accepted to represent Donald Trump in these post-election disputes if I had known then what I know now. I regret this experience deeply, Ellis remarked, occasionally breaking her voice.
The development follows the two former Trump campaign attorneys, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, who collaborated on the phony electors conspiracy, entering consecutive guilty pleas in the vast case last week.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who filed charges in August and is getting ready for trials against Trump, his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his chief of staff Mark Meadows, and other prominent figures, views these three plea agreements as a huge step forward. (They’ve all entered not-guilty pleas.)
Powell, Ellis, and Chesebro all consented to testify for the prosecution in upcoming cases. These former Trump aides are now positioned to become significant Trump adversaries after flipping. Since they are all attorneys, they can provide insight into the background events of 2020.
In the lengthy investigation, 19 people were initially indicted by prosecutors. Four have entered guilty pleas thus far.
Jenna Ellis Apologized to the Judge
Jenna Ellis apologized profusely in court, citing her own “failures” and expressing “deep remorse,” all the while disavowing her role in Trump’s legal battle to void the 2020 presidential election.
“I take my duties as a lawyer extremely seriously as a Christian lawyer, and I strive to be an individual of sound ethical and moral character in all of my dealings,” Jenna Ellis said. But I didn’t follow up with enough research after the 2020 election, she claimed.
I trusted other people, even attorneys with far greater experience than myself, to give me accurate and trustworthy information. What I ought to have done, your honor, and what I did not do was to confirm the details of what the other attorneys claimed.
Ellis’s plea charged Giuliani with a state offense: misleading Georgia lawmakers about voter fraud by promoting fictitious hypotheses. This occurred just one week after Giuliani was linked by Chesebro to the fictitious electors’ plan, which aimed to tamper with the Electoral College system. Giuliani disputes any misconduct.
In prosecution documents, Ellis acknowledged that she knew she helped Giuliani and another Trump attorney, Ray Smith, make knowingly, willfully, and illegally false claims to senators from Georgia.
They made unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud, involving the use of mail-in ballots and thousands of purportedly fraudulent votes from minors, felons, and “dead people.” Giuliani entered a not-guilty plea, as did Smith.
Numerous investigations and recounts by Georgia electoral officials proved that none of these accusations were accurate. Joe Biden defeated Trump in the state by roughly 12,000 votes.
Prosecutors dismissed Ellis’s first two counts, including one for violating Georgia’s RICO racketeering legislation, in exchange for her cooperation. In a statement, Trump’s attorney, Steve Sadow, expressed his belief that this is beneficial for his client and pointed out that Ellis’s admission of illegal activity doesn’t even mention President Trump.
In exchange for a plea to probation, Fani Willis and her prosecuting team have dropped the RICO accusation four times, according to Sadow. That demonstrates that DA Willis is using this ‘RICO’ case as a negotiating chip.
Ellis, who maintains a regular online presence, is prohibited by the plea agreement from sharing any information about the case on social media while any of the defendants are being prosecuted, according to the prosecution.
Jenna Ellis acknowledged that many of her post-election public statements were untrue in unrelated disciplinary procedures in Colorado, where she practices law. One such assertion was that she claimed the race was “stolen” from Trump. A judge censured her, and she paid $224 to have the misconduct investigation stopped.
Jenna Ellis hasn’t been around Trump lately, and she has openly backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primaries for president in 2024.
Jenna Ellis made a public complaint about the lack of funding from pro-Trump organizations following her indictment. Using an internet crowdsourcing platform, she has raised almost $216,000.
Also Read: Pro-Trump Lawyer Takes Plea Deal in Georgia Case Involving Fake Electors
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