In a significant development in the Georgia election interference case, attorney Jenna Ellis has entered a guilty plea. This marks the fourth guilty plea in a broad racketeering case that centers on efforts to keep then-President Donald Trump in office following his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Ellis’s guilty plea comes on the heels of lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell entering similar pleas just before their trial was scheduled to commence. Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, had already pleaded guilty in September. The common thread in these guilty pleas is the agreement to provide truthful testimony in future trials.
Jenna Ellis, in her plea agreement, admitted to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. Notably, she had initially been charged with two counts, including racketeering. The terms of her plea agreement include five years of probation, a $5,000 restitution payment to the Georgia secretary of state’s office, 100 hours of community service, and a letter of apology to the people of Georgia.
The charges against Ellis stem from a December 3, 2020, subcommittee hearing of Georgia’s Senate Judiciary Committee, where Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Ray Smith made a series of baseless claims regarding widespread election fraud. Both Giuliani and Smith are co-defendants in the Georgia case. They asserted that tens of thousands of minors, felons, and deceased individuals had voted in Georgia’s 2020 election.
Ellis’s guilty plea specifically pertains to her role in aiding this testimony, which prosecutors argue was intended to persuade the legislature to disregard Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. During the plea hearing, prosecutor Daysha Young stated, “The false statements were made with reckless disregard for the truth.”
Emotional during her address to the court, Ellis expressed regret, saying, “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 acknowledged her belief in and value of election integrity, and she expressed that with the benefit of hindsight, she would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges.
Jenna Ellis had faced prior censure by a Colorado judge earlier this year after admitting to repeatedly making false statements about the 2020 presidential election.
As for the ongoing legal proceedings, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has not yet set a trial date for the remaining co-defendants, including former President Trump. Notably, Trump’s federal election interference trial is scheduled to begin in March, making it unlikely for a Georgia trial to commence before next spring. The legal saga continues to unfold as the cases progress.
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