Former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis has taken a plea deal in the Georgia election subversion case, pleading guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements, making her the fourth co-defendant in the case to do so following attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell's back-to-back guilty pleas last week.
As part of her agreement, Ellis will incur five years of probation and pay $5,000 in restitution as well as complete 100 community service hours, pen an apology letter and cooperate with Fulton County prosecutors, according to MSNBC's Katie Phang. Ellis, who maintains an active social media presence, is also barred from posting anything on social media about the case while the proceedings against her co-defendants continue.
She delivered a tearful statement to the judge Tuesday while pleading guilty.
“If I knew then what I knew now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse,” Ellis said, adding "I failed to do my due diligence.” She also implicated Rudy Giuliani and Trump campaign lawyer Ray Smith in the deal by admitting that she aided and abetted the former New York mayor's "false statements" to Georgia lawmakers at a December 2020 hearing and acknowledging that she was "assisting with the execution of" that hearing with both Giuliani and co-defendant Smith.
"The dominos are falling," former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade wrote on X, formerly Twitter, of the development.
The dominos are falling. https://t.co/bNnzp1lkiB
— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) October 24, 2023
"Jenna Ellis in her guilty plea acknowledges that she and the others LIED about election fraud in 2020," Phang added. "Her truthful testimony puts Trump more in a corner because it’s yet another lawyer like Powell and Chesebro saying that the Big Lie was a lie."
And again, most importantly, Jenna Ellis in her guilty plea acknowledges that she and the others LIED about election fraud in 2020. Her truthful testimony puts Trump more in a corner because it’s yet another lawyer like Powell and Chesebro saying that the Big Lie was a lie.
— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) October 24, 2023
Ellis has raised more than $216,000 for legal fees from online crowdfunding after bemoaning the lack of financial support from pro-Trump groups.
