Washington — Jenna Ellis, who served as legal counsel to former President Donald Trump during the 2020 election, will be banned from practicing law in the state of Colorado for three years, according to an agreement reached with state legal regulators.
Under the agreement approved by Tuesday As presiding disciplinary judge of the Colorado Supreme Court, Ellis' suspension of her law license will take effect July 2. The disciplinary procedure arose from Ellis' indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, for her alleged role in a scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. She, Trump and seventeen others initially were too charged in the massive racketeering case filed by Fulton County prosecutors last August.
Ellis pleaded guilty in October on a single felony count of complicity in false statements and writing in violation of Georgian law, and was sentenced to five years' probation. The charge related to false statements about the election that then-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and another Trump campaign lawyer made before a Georgia Senate subcommittee in December 2020.
Ellis, a Colorado native, was delisted from the state and so it happened censored in March 2023 as a result of unsubstantiated claims she made about the integrity of the 2020 election while serving as legal counsel for Trump and his campaign. The former president and his allies had falsely claimed the election was rigged against him, even though there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The provision entered into by Colorado's Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel and Ellis noted that while “suspension is the presumptive sanction” for her misconduct, “it is significant that her criminal culpability was due to her conduct as an accomplice, not as a principal.”
In a May 22 letter written by Ellis as part of the stipulation, she said she wanted to express “deep regret” for her conduct surrounding the 2020 election and that it was “wrong to be involved” in activities that made baseless claims spread that the The last presidential election was rife with voter fraud.
“I admit that I was overly zealous in believing that the 'facts' being spread to support the challenge were fabricated and false,” Ellis wrote. “If I had done my duty in investigating these alleged facts before promoting them as the truth, I don't believe I would be here. I turned a blind eye to the possibility that senior Trump campaign lawyers were embracing claims they knew or should have known. which were known to be false. I just went with it.
She said millions of Americans were “misled” by what she said was the “cynical” campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“For democracy to function and flourish, people must believe that their votes count and that the electoral system is fair. This is what “election integrity” should mean, instead of what it has become for many: a political statement of “loyalty.” ,” Ellis wrote. “This confidence in the integrity of our elections has been damaged. That is the damage.”
She said she “gratefully accepts” the three-year suspension from practicing law in the state of Colorado and reiterated her regret for becoming involved in spreading false claims about the election.
