One of the most prominent attorneys of conservative evangelicalism became the fourth person to plead guilty in a Georgia courtroom to wrongly aiding former President Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Jenna Ellis has been at the forefront of Religious Right causes, working with some of the biggest names in that world of religiously motivated political action, including Jerry Falwell Jr., Charlie Kirk, James Dobson, John MacArthur, Thomas More Society, Alliance Defending Freedom and Trump himself.
Jenna Ellis with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
On Aug. 18, Ellis was indicted on two counts in Fulton County, Ga., for making false allegations of election fraud at press conferences and in meetings with legislators of Georgia, Arizona and Michigan; promoting fake elector schemes in multiple states; and writing two legal memos that illegally advised Vice President Mike Pence to disregard legitimate Electoral College votes from Georgia and other states.
Until this week, Ellis, 38, had been defiant and unrepentant for her role in promoting Trump’s Big Lie under the banner of being a “Christian” attorney.
However, in court Tuesday, Oct. 24, Ellis took the unusual step of reading aloud an apology for her illegal actions, explaining she should not have trusted Trump and others who lied to her and she failed to exercise “due diligence” in checking facts before spreading lies.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these postelection challenges.”
“As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously,” she declared. “If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these postelection challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse. 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.”
On February 10, Ellis signed an agreement that declared a public censure of her by the Colorado Supreme Court as an attorney who has violated ethics standards and is guilty of “dishonesty.”
Jenna Ellis with Donald Trump (Photo courtesy of CNN)
Yet in a 2020 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Ellis said of herself, “I’m the Cinderella story of the legal world.” She gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for representing California pastor John MacArthur in his legal actions against Los Angeles County and the state of California protesting public health mandates that keep church doors closed.
In those cases, she prevailed, even though she and MacArthur denied the scientific reality of the danger presented by the pandemic.
Previously, Ellis was on record multiple times critiquing LGBTQ inclusion and taking fellow Republicans to task for not condemning gays and lesbians. A July profile of Ellis in The Daily Beast reported her claim that the separation of church and state was not an intent of the Founding Fathers and is a lie perpetuated by the liberal left.
She is a product of the conservative evangelical subculture created by Dobson and his Focus on the Family.
She is a product of the conservative evangelical subculture created by Dobson and his Focus on the Family.
She is a Colorado native, was home schooled from kindergarten through 12th grade, grew up in an evangelical Christian family where she says “sound doctrine and theology were the basis of her education and fostered a love for God, a solid understanding of the Christian worldview, and her acceptance of the gospel and Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior.”
In 2015, Ellis published a book, The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution. Publicity for the book describes it as making “a compelling case for the true roots of America’s founding documents in objective morality and how our system of government is founded upon the Christian worldview and God’s unchanging law, not a secular humanist worldview.”
In 2020, she identified herself as “senior legal advisor” to the Trump campaign, a contributor to the Beltway Confidential Blog since 2017, an attorney in private practice since 2013, director of the Dobson Policy Center of the James Dobson Family Institute for one year beginning in 2018, assistant professor of legal studies at Colorado Christian University from 2015 to 2018, a deputy district attorney in Colorado for one year beginning in 2012, a contract attorney for the U.S. Department of State for one year beginning in 2011, and a law clerk in the Colorado attorney general’s office for less than a year in 2011.
She earned a law degree from the University of Richmond and a bachelor of journalism degree from Colorado State University.
In addition to work with the Thomas More Society, Ellis had an affiliation with the now-defunct Falkirk Center at Liberty University. That conservative political think tank was named for a combination of the last names of Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk and harbored Christian nationalist ideals.
Jenna Ellis, one of the lead attorneys for Thomas More Society fighting COVID restrictions in California, also served on former President Donald Trump’s legal team. Here, she is shown in November 2020 with Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell speaking at a news conference on Trump’s behalf after he lost the election. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
During the height of Trump’s original claims of election fraud, Ellis was vociferous in amplifying the losing candidate’s lies, all while saying she was acting as a “Christian” attorney.
Pinned at the top of her Twitter feed in 2020 was this declaration: “I’m going on record now: If they try to cancel Christianity, if they try to force me to apologize or recant my Faith, I will not bend, I will not waver, I will not break. On Christ the solid Rock I stand. And I’m proud to be an American.”
She continuously published and spoke a barrage of debunked conspiracy theories about the election, including assertions that the “fact checkers” are actually the liars and that “the Left” is out to destroy America unless good conservative Christians fight harder.
On Dec. 9, 2020, she retweeted one of Trump’s post-election fundraising memes citing his “accomplishments” including that he “received more votes than any incumbent president in history.” The meme omitted the fact that Trump received 7 million fewer votes than Joe Biden, who actually won the popular vote and the Electoral College.
With Tuesday’s guilty plea to a felony, Ellis became the fourth defendant among 18 to accept a plea deal and agree to testify against Trump. That is a dramatic turnaround from her public disposition as recently as a month ago. In August, she tweeted on X, “The Democrats and the Fulton County DA are criminalizing the practice of law. I am resolved to trust the Lord.”
Even the day before her plea deal, she was posting far-right conspiracy theories on her X account, including claims that Joe Biden is covering for his son, Hunter, who is under federal indictment; that Barack and Michelle Obama were somehow involved in the drowning death of their chef; that Vice President Kamala Harris is unfit for office; and that former U.S. Rep. Liz Chaney is “delusional.”
With her guilty plea, she was sentenced to five years of probation and a $5,000 fine, plus 100 hours of community service, writing an apology letter to the people of Georgia and testifying “truthfully” in trials related to this case.
Her surprise guilty plea came only two days after fellow defendants and attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro entered guilty pleas in exchange for their testimony against Trump.
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