Former President Donald J. Pro-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty Tuesday as part of a deal with prosecutors in Georgia as part of what she called an “elite strike force team” to tackle Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
Addressing a judge in an Atlanta courtroom, he said after losing the 2020 election, Mr. He tearfully expressed regret for participating in efforts to keep Trump in power.
38-year-old M.S. Ellis pleaded guilty to charges of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. He is the fourth defendant to plead guilty in a Georgia case that charges Mr Trump and 18 others with conspiring to sway the 2020 presidential election in Mr Trump’s favor.
Mrs. Ellis agreed to five years of probation, pay $5,000 in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service. He has already written a letter of apology to the citizens of Georgia and has agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors as the case progresses.
Kenneth Chesbro, the architect of the effort to field fake Trump voters in Georgia and other swing states, and Mr. Prosecutors last week filed suit against Sidney Powell, an outspoken member of Trump’s legal team. Election.
Late last month, Scott Hall, a bail bond accused along with Ms. Powell of participating in the tampering of voting equipment and data at a Georgia county rural elections office, pleaded guilty in the case.
Fanny D. Willis, the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney, in August indicted 19 defendants on fraud and other charges, alleging they participated in a criminal enterprise that conspired to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. .
Mrs. Ellis, unlike other defendants who pleaded guilty, asked the court to allow him to make a statement. He rose from the defense table and cried, “As a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously.”
In 2020 Mr. After Trump’s defeat, she said she believes challenges to the election results on his behalf should have been pursued in a “fair and legal way.” But he said he relied on information provided by other attorneys, including those with “many years more experience than me,” and failed to do his “due diligence” in verifying the veracity of their claims.
“Had I known what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” Ms. Ellis told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. “I look back on this experience with deep regret. For those failures of mine, Your Honor, I have already taken responsibility before the Colorado Bar, who censured me, and now I take responsibility before this court and apologize to the people of Georgia.
In March, Ms. Ellis said in a sworn statement in his home state of Colorado that there was widespread voter fraud and that Mr. He admitted to knowingly misrepresenting the facts in several public statements that led to Trump’s defeat. Those admissions were part of Ms. Ellis’s agreement to accept public scrutiny and settle disciplinary proceedings brought against her by the State Bar of Colorado.
Although he can still practice law in Colorado, at least one additional complaint about his professional conduct is expected.
“We plan to file a new complaint in Colorado based on the defendant’s conviction so the bar can evaluate this matter in light of his criminal record,” said Michael Teter, executive director of the 65 Project.
Mr. Ms Ellis’s new misgivings about Trump and her refusal to accept his election defeat were evident before her plea on Tuesday.
Last month, on his Christian Broadcasting Radio show, he was invited Mr. Trump is “a friend” and added, “I have a lot of love and respect for him personally.” But he told the show that he could not support him politically again because he exhibited a “malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say he’s never done anything wrong”.
