Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who used to work for former President Trump, recently agreed to a plea deal in the 2020 Georgia election meddling case.
Ellis pled guilty to helping to make fake statements and writings this week, making her the fourth out of 19 defendants in this case to do so. Fulton County DA Fani Willis filed the charges against the accused in August.
The first person to accept a plea deal from prosecutors this past month was Scott Hall, an Atlanta, Georgia bail bond officer. Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell also agreed to plea deals.
Ellis, who is 38 years old, was given five years of probation in addition to a total of 100 hours spent doing community work. In addition, she had to pay $5,000 in reparations and write voters in Georgia an apology letter. Ellis also consented to provide accurate testimony against Trump and the other defendants in the case. As part of their plea agreements, Hall, Powell, and Chesebro also consented to testify in the trials of the other co-defendants.
Prosecutors said Ellis and Rudy Giuliani spread false information pertaining to the 2020 race.
Daysha Young, the prosecutor for Fulton County, said, “The false statements were given with reckless disregard for the truth as well as with the obvious goal of avoiding learning the truth.”
“The accused attended and assisted Giuliani and Smith to put forward these false claims by assisting with the carrying out of the Dec. 3, 2020, Senate Judicial Committee meeting,” said Young.
Ellis was accused of engaging in an unlawful plot to keep Trump in office.
Ellis admitted during her plea hearing that “she did not do her research because she was so busy trying to question the election in several places, including Georgia. I value and believe in fair elections. Knowing what I know now, I would not have agreed to defend Donald Trump in these matters after the election. I feel very bad about what I did when I think about this whole thing.”
“As a lawyer who also happens to be a Christian, I take my duties as an attorney quite seriously, and I strive to conduct myself as a person with sound ethical and moral character in every one of my dealings,” she said. “In the aftermath of the presidential election in 2020, I felt that any challenge to the results of the election for the benefit of President Trump needed to be pursued in a legal and just way.”
Trial dates haven’t been officially set for Trump and the 14 additional defendants.
