Jenna Ellis (left) in a Fulton County Jail mug shot, (right) in court on Oct. 24, 2023 to plead guilty (Fulton County Superior Court/YouTube)
The Donald Trump lawyer who tearfully admitted to committing a felony as part of an effort to subvert the 2020 presidential election is now facing misconduct allegations in her one-time home state.
Jenna Ellis, who grinned as her mug shot was taken in Fulton County, Georgia, after she was charged in a sprawling RICO case involving the former president and more than a dozen of his allies, is accused of violating rules of professional conduct and violating the oath she took as a lawyer in Colorado.
The attorney, who at one point was part of Trump’s so-called “elite strike force” of legal minds looking to undermine President Joe Biden’s electoral win, was indicted in August alongside Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Ray Stallings Smith III for “unlawfully solicit[ing], request[ing], and importun[ing] certain public officers of the Georgia Senate and present at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee meeting” on Dec. 3, 2020 to “engage in conduct constituting the felony offense of Violation of Oath by Public Officer by unlawfully appointing presidential electors from the State of Georgia, in willful and intentional violation of the terms of the oath of said persons as prescribed by law[.]”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Ellis pleaded guilty in October to felony aiding and abetting false statements and writings. The Colorado allegations, filed Tuesday, are directly linked to her guilty plea in Georgia.
Ellis’ “entry of a guilty plea to the felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in violation of [Georgia law] constitutes a felony conviction pursuant to [Colorado law],” the complaint says. As such, according to Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel Jessica Yates, who investigates allegations of lawyer misconduct, Ellis violated the Peach State’s rules of professional conduct there, and is therefore subject to discipline in Colorado.
The allegations also claim that Ellis “admitted to the commission of a criminal act that reflects adversely on her honesty, trustworthiness, and fitness as a lawyer,” and that she “engaged in professional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”
Although Ellis herself didn’t speak before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee in 2020, the fact that she “knowingly aided and abetted Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Smith, who knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully made the false statements” about voting and tabulation of votes in Georgia, was a violation of professional conduct rules.
“I thought I resolved all of this almost a year ago,” Ellis told local news website Colorado Newsline. “I will vigorously defend against this complaint and am confident that once all the facts are brought out, I will prevail.”
It is the second time since 2020 that Ellis is facing misconduct allegations in Colorado. In March 2023, she was censured after admitting she made misleading statements about the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Read the Colorado complaint, via States United Democracy Center, here.
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