Attorney Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, entered a guilty plea on Tuesday in the sweeping racketeering case brought against the former president and his associates in Fulton County, Georgia. In exchange for pleading guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements, Ellis has managed to avoid jail time…but only if she testifies against the remaining defendants.
Jenna Ellis, a notable conservative media personality as well as an attorney, originally faced two felony charges for her role in helping former President Trump challenge the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, a swing state he lost by less than 12,000 votes. Ellis was charged alongside Trump and 17 other defendants in August. She submitted herself for arrest and arraignment shortly before the former president.
Under the initial indictment handed down by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Ellis was charged with soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer and violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, both of which carry steep penalties. However, in exchange for her plea on a lesser count of aiding and abetting false statements, she will receive only five years’ probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $5,000 fine. She must also cooperate with the prosecution of all remaining codefendants, including Trump himself.
Since her time with the Trump campaign, Ellis has become an aggressive Trump critic and vocal supporter of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is challenging Trump in the 2024 Republican primary. Ellis most recently characterized the former president as having a “malignant, narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.”
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Appearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Tuesday, Ellis delivered a tearful statement of apology (another condition of her agreement) lamenting her failure to do her “due diligence.”
“As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound moral and ethical character in all of my dealings,” she began. “I believed that challenging the results on behalf of President Trump should be pursued in a just and legal way.”
“What I did not do, but should have done your honor, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were in fact true,” she continued. “In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence.”
Jenna Ellis shakes and cries while pleading guilty in Fulton County:
"As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound moral and ethical character in all of my dealings." pic.twitter.com/4fGaMle4lU
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 24, 2023
Ellis is now the third attorney and fourth Trump co-defendant to accept a plea agreement in the Fulton County case. Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall previously pled guilty in late September. Attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro entered into similar agreements last week on the eve of their joint trial. All four defendants may be called upon to testify against the other alleged co-conspirators.
Trump’s defense team has cited the plea deals as further evidence of the political prosecution against the former president. If DA Willis’ office had actual evidence against Trump, the defense argues, they would not be using the RICO charges as a bargaining chip.
“For the fourth time, Fani Willis and her prosecution team have dismissed the RICO charge in return for a plea to probation,” said Trump attorney Steve Sadow. “What that shows is this so-called RICO case is nothing more than a bargaining chip for Willis. Moreover, this plea was to a completely separate charge, not a part of the original indictment, which doesn’t even mention President Trump.”
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