Ex-Trump Lawyer Sobs as She Agrees to Testify in Georgia Election Case

Jen­na Ellis Breaks Down Admit­ting Blun­ders that Tore at Truth

For­mer Trump attor­ney Jen­na Ellis tear­ful­ly plead­ed guilty Tues­day to coop­er­ate in the Geor­gia crim­i­nal case against Don­ald Trump relat­ed to the 2020 elec­tion. The 38-year-old agreed to tes­ti­fy, admit­ted fail­ures to ensure fraud claims were true, and said with “deep remorse” that she would not rep­re­sent the for­mer pres­i­dent again. Ellis’s tes­ti­mo­ny could prove piv­otal as Trump faces felony charges stem­ming from efforts to reverse his elec­tion defeat.

Break­ing down in court, Ellis acknowl­edged she did not ver­i­fy facts from oth­er Trump attor­neys about alleged vot­er fraud. “I relied on lawyers with more expe­ri­ence, yet failed at due dili­gence,” she said. “If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined rep­re­sent­ing Don­ald Trump in post-elec­tion chal­lenges.” Ellis said elec­tion integri­ty is impor­tant, but that she took respon­si­bil­i­ty for spread­ing claims with­out proof. Her guilty plea to aid­ing false state­ments car­ries pro­ba­tion and com­mu­ni­ty service.

The case tar­gets 19 defen­dants using RICO laws against orga­nized crime. Ful­ton Coun­ty pros­e­cu­tor Fani Willis aims to prove an ille­gal con­spir­a­cy. Ellis’s coop­er­a­tion could strength­en the pros­e­cu­tion as Trump faces years in prison if con­vict­ed in Geor­gia as well as oth­er crim­i­nal mat­ters. Her tes­ti­mo­ny pro­vides a poten­tial insid­er account of efforts to reverse Trump’s defeat that tore at the truth. The out­come could impact both jus­tice and the next pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, as polls show Trump slight­ly lead­ing Biden in a hypo­thet­i­cal rematch.