A third Donald Trump campaign lawyer reached a plea deal on Tuesday that could see her testify for the prosecution in future trials, turning up the pressure on the former president as his legal woes grow.
A tearful Jenna Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty to charges related to Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss in the southern US state of Georgia. “If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post election challenges,” Ellis told the court in Atlanta on Tuesday.
The deal allowed her to avoid jail time by admitting to one felony count of “aiding and abetting false statements and writings.”
It came after lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sydney Powell also pleaded guilty last week.
They were among the 18 codefendants charged alongside Trump in the case, the only state-level proceeding thus far targeting the Republican for actions he took to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of involvement in a criminal conspiracy to change the result in Georgia, where Biden won by some 12,000 votes.
Ellis, like Powell and Chesebro, received several years of probation, a $5,000 fine and 100 hours of community service, while agreeing to testify in any future trials.
After Trump’s November 2020 loss, Ellis made frequent appearances on television and in state legislative hearings to call for Biden’s victory not to be certified, citing false claims of irregularities.
According to a court filing, Ellis admitted that she helped attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Ray Stallings Smith, two other co-defendants in the case, submit false testimony to the Georgia state senate. “In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence,” Ellis said in court.
Legal analysts have described the plea deals as a potential blow to Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, as his former lawyers turn witnesses for the prosecution.
Cheseboro, 62, had been accused of orchestrating a scheme to submit a slate of fake electors to Congress in a bid to block certification of Biden’s election victory. He pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to file false documents.
Powell, 68, was a vocal Trump supporter who peddled outlandish conspiracy theories about voting machines allegedly designed in Venezuela under the late Hugo Chavez that “flipped” Trump votes to Biden votes.
She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of election duties and was sentenced to six years of probation.
A trial date has not been set yet for the 77-year-old Trump, who on Tuesday was in a New York courtroom again to defend himself against a major civil fraud case.
In addition to the three ex-campaign lawyers, bail bondsmen Scott Hall has pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of election duties.
Others indicted in Georgia include Giuliani, Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, John Eastman, a constitutional lawyer, and Jeffrey Clark, a mid-level Justice Department official.
Trump also faces federal charges for his efforts to upend the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol by his supporters. He is to go on trial in that case in Washington in March 2024.
