Jenna Ellis was a small-town Colorado attorney who became a Christian celebrity working with conservative evangelical ministries. Then James Dobson introduced her to Donald Trump. Hired as a White House lawyer, she joined Rudy Giuliani’s “crack legal team” that promoted false claims of election fraud.
“We know that the election was stolen from President Trump and we can prove that,” she claimed in 2020. But the proof never materialized.
Ellis faced years of legal problems she called “persecution.” She pled guilty to a felony in Georgia for aiding and abetting false statements. She avoided nine fraud and conspiracy felony charges in Arizona by agreeing to testify against Giuliani. She was censured in Colorado.
Through it all, ministries that once promoted her turned their backs. Ellis previously worked with Alliance Defending Freedom, Colorado Christian University, Concerned Women for America, James Dobson Family Institute, Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, Summit Ministries, and the Thomas More Society’s Amistad Project.
Trump disappointed Ellis by declining to offer her any support or legal assistance amid her rising legal bills.
“He should have been financially supportive of those of us who were entangled in that,” she said in a phone interview last week.
Instead, her attorney Michael Melito has raised more than $200,000 for her legal defense on the platform GiveSendGo. Ellis says she has not received any of the money, which has been divided between Melito and other attorneys, but is not enough to cover all her legal bills.
Nor did she authorize Melito’s language for the fundraising campaign, which claimed Ellis was “being targeted” by the government, which “is trying to criminalize the practice of law.”
“Without my faith and personal relationship with the Lord, I don’t know how I would have gotten through this whole period,” she said. “I credit my church, my family and my faith.”
Earlier this year Ellis returned to past form, working with a conservative evangelical ministry. She now has a full-time job with American Family Association as senior adviser on public policy. She has hosted the “Jenna Ellis in the Morning” radio show for AFA for the past three years.
She says the challenges of the past four years have changed her.
“Everything I’ve been through the last four years has definitely cemented my resolve to speak truth,” she said during a wide-ranging interview that covered everything except details of the Georgia and Arizona cases she is prohibited from discussing.
Ellis remains an evangelical, a conservative, a Republican and a Trump supporter. She says she’s “really impressed” by what Trump is doing in his second administration. But Trump was not her first choice in 2024, when she initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or even in 2016, when she initially supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“I supported DeSantis out of principle and as a Christian trying to choose the best candidate available,” she explained. He’s a “proven conservative leader who takes worldview very seriously.” Once Trump became the GOP nominee, however, she supported him.
Ellis said the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution limits presidents to two terms, but amending the Constitution is within “the scope of possibility.”
Ellis was a major player in Trump’s illegal effort to win a second term after he lost the 2020 election. In a tearful confession, she told the court in Georgia she had been deceived.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” she told the court. “I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse.”
But she now believes Trump will stick to constitutional means if he seeks a third term, something Trump recently said he’s “not joking” about.
In a press release headlined “Who’s afraid of a third term?” Ellis said the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution limits presidents to two terms, but amending the Constitution is within “the scope of possibility.”
“If there’s a procedural way to accomplish it, he’s likely very much considering it,” she said.
She also believes the July assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania changed him spiritually, deepening his “genuine faith.”
But Trump has been ambivalent about the impact of the shooting. He claimed at one point it had changed him and made him “more of a believer.” But he later reversed himself, saying, “Maybe I’ve gotten worse.”
She says she would like to see Trump have a third term, but she now prioritizes principle over personality and opposes a third term unless the Constitution is amended.
Episodes of the “Jenna Ellis in the Morning” radio show often give listeners a reliably Trumpy take on the day’s news:
- In an episode on “President Trump’s War with the Courts,” she supported Trump’s deportation of people he claims are part of a Venezuelan gang without due process, accusing Judge James Boasberg, who has ruled against Trump, of lawfare and judicial activism.
- In the episode “The Christian Position on the Death Penalty,” she’s all for it, citing Romans 13:4: “If you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason.”
- The program “Leaked Texts” defends Pete Hegseth’s use of an unsecured channel for discussing attack plans against the Houthis. “This is not nearly the scandal the left would like to make it,” she says.
- “The Moral Decline of Political Conservatives” criticizes “big-tent MAGA.” Ellis complains that Trump’s personal allure has brought people into the GOP who have no understanding of conservative principles.
- The episode “America Under Samson Style Leadership” suggests America needs a strong moral leader to make up for the country’s dwindling moral and religious strength.
“Trump’s America First agenda is not necessarily advancing a biblical worldview, but he’s advancing a biblical worldview nonetheless,” she said, in part by appointing Christians in his administration.
Ellis has been through a lot. An “amazing” high point was joining the Trump team. On her first day at the White House, she was promptly interviewed, hired and invited to join Trump on his plane to travel to a rally in Louisiana.
The low point? “The aftermath,” she said.
Although she wouldn’t have chosen this path, she said, “That’s what God had for me.” And now, she’s glad God has given her another chance to work with a ministry.
“I always dedicated myself to not having a career but a ministry,” she said. “I love being able to get up every morning and explain the biblical worldview, not someone else’s view.”
