(VitalNews.org) – Another member of President Trump’s former legal team has accepted a plea deal in the face of anti-racketeering charges stemming from the 2020 presidential election. Attorney Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty on Tuesday, October 24, to a single charge of aiding and abetting false statements in Fulton County, Georgia.
Ellis, along with President Trump and several other affiliates, was investigated and charged using the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. The state of Georgia brought charges against 19 people in total, all accused in one form or other of conspiring to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. The District Attorney for Fulton County, Fani Willis, opened the investigation after a phone call between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgian Secretary of State, was made public. The phone call, made in January 2021, appears to show Trump suggesting that Raffensperger might help to “find” the necessary votes in order to overturn the Biden victory in Georgia.
Ellis represented Trump both during and after the election, but says that she regrets doing so, and looks back over the period with remorse. She claimed that she relied on more experienced attorneys to guide her actions while representing the former President. As a result of her plea deal, state prosecutors have advised that she received five years of probation, face $5,000 of fines, serve 100 hours of community service, and write a letter of apology to the people of Georgia. She has also been instructed to ensure that she testifies honestly in future cases involving her co-defendants.
Ellis makes the fourth person involved in the case to plead guilty to one or more charges, and the third to do so within the space of a week. Her former colleagues Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro have both pleaded guilty to various related charges. Chesebro stood accused of inventing electors in order to help Trump win the state. Powell faced a number of misdemeanor charges and has been instructed to write a letter of apology to the state of Georgia as well as to testify against other defendants in upcoming proceedings.
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