Members of President Donald Trump’s legal team, including former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, left, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, speaking, attend a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Thursday Nov. 19, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Jenna Ellis has agreed to a law license suspension in the state of Colorado, where she cut her teeth as a local prosecutor before being fired and rebranding herself years later as a “constitutional law attorney” for former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Last October, Ellis pleaded guilty in Georgia to aiding and abetting false statements and writings, a felony. Though she had smiled in her Fulton County mug shot, Ellis got emotional at her change of plea hearing, speaking about how she takes her “responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously.”
Jenna Ellis (left) in a Fulton County Jail mug shot, (right) apologizing in court on Oct. 24, 2023 after pleading guilty (Fulton County Superior Court/YouTube)
“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, acknowledging that she “failed to do her due diligence” while serving as a so-called “elite strike force” member who insisted that Trump won the 2020 election.
“If I knew what I knew now,” Ellis said. “I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in the post-election challenges.”
“I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse,” she added.
According to the stipulation, once Ellis’ three-year suspension has run its course, she can pursue reinstatement but only after proving “by clear and convincing evidence that she has been rehabilitated, has complied with all disciplinary orders and rules, and is fit to practice law.”
Documents show that Ellis admitted to making “ten misrepresentations” about the 2020 election, many of those on TV — whether on Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, or MSNBC — and in violation of Colorado’s Rules of Professional Conduct.
One of those “misrepresentations” was that Hillary Clinton “still has not conceded the 2016 election.” Other falsehoods included claims that the 2020 election was, in fact, “stolen” and that she was prepared to prove it was “actually fraudulent.”
The suspension, set to go in effect on July 2, is something Ellis is “gratefully” accepting, she said.
“Everything I have to say here is completely voluntary, honest, and sincere,” Ellis said in a letter attached as an exhibit to the stipulation. “The reason I agreed to plead guilty in Georgia and to enter into the stipulation with the OARC arising out of the Georgia plea, is because I want to tell the truth. In doing so I wish to express my deep remorse and to acknowledge the harm my misconduct caused.”
In the letter, Ellis said that at the time she served as Trump’s post-election lawyer she “genuinely believed” that 2020 was “basically a repeat of a Bush v. Gore situation, not an effort to undermine the public faith in the integrity of elections.”
Now, she says, “I was wrong to be involved.”
Ellis, in retrospect, cast herself as naive to go along with the “Stop the Steal” narrative.
“I turned a blind eye to the possibility that that senior lawyers for the Trump Campaign were embracing claims they knew or should have known were false. I just went along with it,” she said. “I was wrong.”
Still, Ellis claimed she would “never lie intentionally.”
“I truly regret my involvement in repeating and advocating statements of fact that were false and for misleading the public,” she wrote. “I would never lie intentionally, but I also recognize the effect my participation had, which is the same.”
Ellis expressed hope that her acceptance of responsibility will inspire stolen election believers to “consider changing their position.”
“Everything that has come out since has not proven that claim,” her letter concluded. “I will continue to stand up for the truth, even when it requires admitting I was wrong.”
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