A Trump ally has pleaded guilty to efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Lawyer Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty on Tuesday to aiding and abetting false statements in the case, telling a judge she looked back on that time with “deep remorse”.
Ms Ellis was charged alongside Mr Trump and seventeen others in the case with flouting the state’s anti-racketeering laws over efforts to overturn the election loss.
She is the fourth defendant in the case to enter into a plea deal with prosecutors.
Fighting tears as she pleaded guilty, Ms Ellis told an Atlanta court that she would not have represented Trump after the 2020 election if she knew then what she knows now.
“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," the 38-year-old said.
The guilty plea from Ellis comes just days after two other defendants, fellow attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, entered guilty pleas.
That means three high-profile people responsible for pushing baseless legal challenges to Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 election victory have agreed to accept responsibility rather than face a jury.
She was sentenced to five years of probation along with $5,000 (£4,107) in restitution, 100 hours of community service, writing an apology letter to the people of Georgia and testifying truthfully in trials related to the case.
Prosecutors had accused Ellis of helping to author plans to disrupt and delay congressional certification of the 2020 election's results on January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol insurrection.
Ms Ellis is also accused of urging state legislators to unlawfully appoint a set of presidential electors loyal to Trump at a hearing in Pennsylvania.
Along with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, she was a leading voice in the Trump campaign's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, pushing a false narrative of voter fraud in media appearances.
Co-defendant Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanours in relation to the case, while Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
Bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges and got five years of probation.
Trump and the other defendants, including his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have pleaded not guilty.
The former US president, who is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for 2024, has also been charged in a separate federal investigation into efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
