Lawyer who claimed Trump 'won in a landslide' pleads guilty in Georgia RICO case
Lawyer Jenna Ellis reads a statement inside Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom Oct. 24 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. Photo by John Bazemore via the Associated Press.
Jenna Ellis, a former legal adviser to former President Donald Trump, is the third lawyer to plead guilty in Georgia’s election-interference RICO case.
Ellis pleaded guilty Tuesday to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, report the New York Times, Law360, the Washington Post and CNN.
Ellis had declared that Trump “won in a landslide” on Fox Business on Nov. 30, 2020. The Georgia indictment accused her of pushing for fake electors and advancing a strategy to disrupt the electoral vote count Jan. 6, 2021.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” Ellis said in court Tuesday, according to the Washington Post.
According to CNN, Ellis said she had thought that the vote results should be challenged on Trump’s behalf “in a just and legal way,” but she said she “failed to do my due diligence.”
Like the other two lawyers who pleaded guilty in the case, Ellis has written a letter of apology. She agreed to serve five years of probation, to perform 100 hours of community service and to pay $5,000 in restitution. She also agreed to testify in future trials of other defendants.
The other lawyers who pleaded guilty are Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro. A fourth defendant, a bail bondsman, has also pleaded guilty.
Charges are pending against five other lawyers in the case, including Rudy Giuliani and former Chapman University law professor John Eastman. Ellis worked closely with Giuliani, according to the Washington Post.
A total of 19 people were charged in the case, including Trump.
