Ellis at plea hearing says she has ‘deep remorse’ over representing Trump

Former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis tearfully expressed remorse while pleading guilty Tuesday in Georgia, telling the judge she regretted representing then-President Trump following the 2020 election.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” Ellis told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee before he accepted her plea.

“I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse,” she continued. “For those failures of mine, your honor, I’ve taken responsibility already before the Colorado bar, who censured me, and I now take responsibility before this court and apologize to the people of Georgia.”

Ellis is the third former Trump campaign attorney to take a plea deal with Georgia prosecutors in their 2020 election interference case, agreeing Tuesday to testify against her co-defendants, including the former president.

She was sentenced to five years probation. Like the other defendants who have taken plea deals, Ellis also agreed to write a letter of apology to the citizens of Georgia.

During the brief proceeding Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings for her participation at a Dec. 3, 2020, Georgia legislative committee hearing. 

At the hearing, key Trump allies including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to convince lawmakers of baseless claims of mass electoral fraud.

“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,” Ellis said during Tuesday’s court proceeding.

“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.”

Legal experts suggest the recent plea deals and the agreements to testify could increase the others defendants’ exposure and increase their legal jeopardy. 

Ellis’s plea came days after similar agreements from fellow former Trump campaign attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro. 

“In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence,” Ellis said.