Jenna Ellis, the Christian attorney who joined former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, agreed Aug. 5 to cooperate with Arizona’s attorney general. She pledged to “completely and truthfully” testify against her former partner, Rudy Giuliani.
Ellis, who once boasted she possessed plentiful evidence of election fraud and claimed her prosecution meant she was being “persecuted,” will no longer face nine felony charges in Arizona, according to The Washington Post.
It’s been a long, strange journey for a woman who had little legal experience before landing prestigious positions with conservative Christian groups that have so far failed to acknowledge her criminal activities.
She has worked for Alliance Defending Freedom, Colorado Christian University and its Centennial Institute, Concerned Women for America, James Dobson Family Institute, Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church, Summit Ministries and Thomas More Society’s Amistad Project.
“My mission is Truth, my God is the Lord Jesus Christ, and my client is the President of the United States,” she Tweeted in 2020.
In March 2023, Colorado’s Office of Attorney Regulation censured her. She then confessed to operating from a “selfish motive” while making “misrepresentations” with “a reckless state of mind.” She admitted her actions had “undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election,” violating her “duty of candor to the public.”
After her indictment in Georgia for aiding and abetting the conspiracy to overturn that state’s 2020 election results, she at first claimed, “The Democrats and the Fulton County (district attorney) are criminalizing the practice of law.”
She took a different approach in October 2023, when she pleaded guilty and said, “I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse.”
Her Georgia guilty plea resulted in a sentence of 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 her case.
She now is aiding Georgia in that state’s case against Trump, Giuliani and others.
“As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously …. I failed to do my due diligence.”
“As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound moral and ethical character in all of my dealings,” she said when pleading guilty in Georgia. “I failed to do my due diligence.”
That said, she blamed information provided to her by other lawyers “with many more years of experience.”
In May 2024, she was barred from practicing law in Colorado for three years and indicted in Arizona. The disciplinary order results from her Georgia guilty plea.
An attorney is raising funds for her legal defense in a GiveSendGo campaign that so far has taken in $220,996. In May, the campaign claimed Ellis was “being targeted and the government is trying to criminalize the practice of law.” That language since has been omitted.
She currently hosts “The Jenna Ellis Show” on the Salem Podcast Network, where she focuses on “the rule of law and the importance of integrity in our elections.” She also hosts “Jenna Ellis in the Morning” for the American Family Association’s American Family Radio.
Ellis worked for the James Dobson Family Institute before Dobson introduced her to Fox News, where Trump discovered her. She joined his legal team at the White House. Then she became a central player in Giuliani’s legal team that failed in their efforts to overturn 2020 election results in swing states Joe Biden won.
Focus on the Family featured Ellis in articles claiming election fraud (here and here). The Southern Baptist-affiliated Cedarville University offers a Jenna Lynn Ellis Award, an endowed scholarship for junior or senior students planning to attend law school. Cedarville portrays Ellis as a Christian role model.
When she was working alongside Giuliani in 2020 and 2021, Ellis made extensive claims of election fraud on Trump’s behalf:
- “We know that the election was stolen from President Trump, and we can prove that.”
- “The election was stolen, and Trump won by a landslide.”
- “President Trump is right that there was widespread fraud in this election. We have at least six states that were corrupted.”
- “We have over 500,000 votes (in Arizona) that were cast illegally … “
This article originally appeared in Baptist News Global.
