Another of former President Donald Trump's co-defendants in his election subversion case in Fulton County, Georgia, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
Jenna Ellis reached a deal to plead guilty to lesser charges after facing felony RICO Act charges. The RICO Act charges stemmed from alleged attempts to illegally interfere with the 2020 presidential election. Georgia was one of several states Trump lost that he and his allies contested.
Ellis pleaded guilty to a single count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.
In August, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis decided to use a four-decade-old statute to pursue racketeering charges against Trump and 18 others.
Ellis is the fourth of Trump's co-defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges. Last week, Pro-Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell both pleaded guilty to lesser charges. In both cases, they avoided jail time and will instead get probation.
One other defendant in the case, Scott Hall, has pleaded guilty. The remaining defendants, including Trump, have entered not guilty pleas.
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Daysha Young, a Fulton County executive district attorney, said on Tuesday that Ellis made a number of unsubstantiated claims of fraud following the 2020 election. Young said that Ellis made these allegations with "reckless disregard of the truth."
"The false statements were used as part of a plan by the Trump campaign to solicit the Georgia General Assembly to disregard the certified results of the presidential election in this state and instead to unlawfully appoint nonelected presidential electors in violation of their oath to the Georgia Constitution and to the United States Constitution," Young said.
Prosecutors said the charge comes with a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum of five years.
"I believed that challenging the results on behalf of President Trump should be pursued in a just and legal way," Ellis told Judge Scott McAfee. "I endeavored to represent my client to the best of my ability.
"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 in speaking to the media and to legislators in various states.
"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 in the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states including Georgia. I failed to do my due diligence."
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