On Tuesday morning, Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for Donald Trump, entered a guilty plea in the Georgia election interference case, becoming the fourth co-defendant to opt for a plea deal.
In court, Ellis admitted to aiding and abetting the creation of false statements and documents. The terms of her plea agreement stipulate that she must serve five years of probation, pay $5,000 in restitution to the Georgia secretary of state within 30 days, and be willing to testify at hearings or trials related to the case.
Moreover, as part of her agreement, Ellis is obligated to perform 100 hours of community service and compose an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia. She has also committed to providing any requested documents or evidence, refraining from discussing the case on social media, and avoiding communication with witnesses or the media until the case’s conclusion.
Jenna Ellis served as Donald Trump’s senior legal advisor from early 2019 until shortly after his departure from office in January 2021. She was a member of the legal team that supported his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results.
According to prosecutors, Ellis took part in a December 2020 meeting, alongside Rudy Giuliani and other Trump attorneys, during which false statements were made in an attempt to disregard the certified results of the presidential election in Georgia and to appoint fraudulent presidential electors. They also alleged that Ellis was involved in similar misleading statements in other states, including Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
During her court appearance on Tuesday, Jenna Ellis became emotional, shedding tears as she expressed her regrets about her involvement in representing Donald Trump.
“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. In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, I believed that challenging the results on behalf of President Trump should be pursued in a just and legal way. I endeavored to represent my client to the best of my ability. I relied on others, including lawyers with many more years of experience than I, to provide me with true and reliable information, especially since my role involved speaking to the media and to legislators in various states,” Ellis told the judge.
“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 added. “In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence. I believe in and I value election integrity. If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this full experience with deep remorse.”
