Jenna Ellis, who served as an attorney for Donald Trump during his 2020 presidential campaign, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in Arizona’s “fake electors” case. Alongside 17 other defendants, Ellis faces charges including forgery, fraud, and conspiracy related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. All 18 defendants have entered not guilty pleas in Arizona.
Earlier in 2023, Ellis had pleaded guilty in a separate Georgia election interference case where both she and Trump were implicated. During her plea in Georgia, Ellis admitted to failing in her due diligence while working on post-election challenges in multiple states, including Georgia. She expressed regret, acknowledging that she would not have represented Trump had she known then what she knows now.
In the Arizona case, charging documents allege that shortly after the 2020 election, 11 Trump supporters met at the Arizona GOP headquarters and signed a certificate falsely claiming to be Arizona’s electors to the Electoral College. This occurred despite Joe Biden winning the state and having his electors certified by state officials. The Arizona Republican Party publicly documented the event through social media and sent the certificate to Congress and the National Archives.
Other prominent figures charged in connection with this plan include Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, both of whom were also indicted by a state grand jury in April.
Ellis, who served as a senior legal adviser to Trump from early 2019 until shortly after he left office, has faced multiple legal challenges and professional repercussions due to her involvement in efforts to challenge the election results. In 2023, she was censured by a Colorado Supreme Court justice for violating professional conduct rules, leading to a three-year suspension of her law license in Colorado.
