Attorney Jenna Ellis, a member of former President Donald Trump’s legal team after the 2020 election, pled guilty on Tuesday to reduced criminal charges in Fulton County’s sprawling racketeering case involving alleged efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia.
Ellis pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and was sentenced to five years probation. She must also pay $5,000 in restitution, write a letter apologizing to the state, and testify against the remaining defendants.
The penalties that Ellis faces are significantly less than if she had been convicted of the charges that she initially faced, which included Violation of the Georgia RICO Act and Solicitation of Violation of Oath by Public Officer.
Ellis delivered an emotional statement to Judge Scott McAfee Tuesday stating that she failed to do her “due diligence” in pursuing the election result challenge on behalf of then-President Trump.
“As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound moral and ethical character in all of my dealings,” Ellis said. “I believed that challenging the results on behalf of President Trump should be pursued in a just and legal way.”
However, she said, she relied too heavily on the information provided by other lawyers and ultimately failed to do her “due diligence.”
“I relied on others, including lawyers with many more years of experience than I, to provide me with true and reliable information, especially since my role involved speaking to the media and to legislators in various states,” she said.
“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 added. “In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence.”
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” she said. “I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse.”
“For those failures of mine, your honor, I have taken responsibility already before the Colorado bar, who censured me,” she concluded. “And I now take responsibility before this court and apologize to the people of Georgia.”
Ellis is now the third attorney who has pled guilty in the Fulton County case, which could spell trouble for the former president.
Last week, attorney Sidney Powell pled guilty to reduced charges, a total of six misdemeanor counts of Conspiracy to Commit Intentional Interference with Performance of Election Duties. She now has to serve six years of probation, pay a $6,000 fine, pay $2,700 in restitution to the state, and write an apology to the citizens of the state. She also agreed to testify against any of the other remaining defendants in the case.
Also last week, attorney Kenneth Chesebro accepted a plea deal from prosecutors and pled guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to commit filing of false documents and will only have to pay a $5,000 fine and spend five years on probation.
This report has been updated to include additional information.