Another Trump Attorney Pleads Guilty in Georgia

Jenna Ellis, an attorney and prominent conservative media figure, reached a deal with prosecutors Tuesday and pleaded guilty to reduced charges over efforts to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia, per the AP. Ellis, the fourth defendant in the case to enter into a plea deal, was a vocal part of Trump's reelection campaign in the last presidential cycle and was charged alongside the former president and 17 others with violating the state's anti-racketeering law. Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty to a count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. She had been facing charges of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer.

The guilty plea from Ellis comes just days after two other defendants, fellow attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, entered guilty pleas. That means three high-profile people in the case have agreed to accept responsibility for their roles rather than take their chances before a jury. Prosecutors recommend five years of probation for Ellis along with $5,000 in restitution and 100 hours of community service; she must also write an apology letter to the people of Georgia and testify in trials related to this case. The indictment in the sweeping case details a number of accusations against Ellis, including that she helped author plans on how to disrupt and delay congressional certification of the 2020 election's results on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ellis is also accused of urging state legislators to unlawfully appoint a set of presidential electors loyal to Trump at a hearing in Pennsylvania, and she later appeared with some of those lawmakers and Trump at a meeting on the topic at the White House. The indictment further says she similarly pushed state lawmakers to back false, pro-Trump electors in Georgia, as well as Arizona and Michigan. Before her plea, Ellis was defiant, posting in August on X: "The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law. I am resolved to trust the Lord." But she has been more critical of Trump since then, saying on conservative radio in September that she wouldn't vote for him again, citing his "malignant, narcissistic tendency to simply say that he's never done anything wrong." (More Georgia indictment stories.)