Attorney Jenna Ellis speaks during a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., in a Nov. 19, 2020, file photo. (Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Colorado native and former Donald Trump attorney Jenna Ellis should be disbarred in her home state after pleading guilty to crimes related to 2020 election lies, according to a complaint lodged by watchdog groups Friday.
States United Democracy Center and Lawyers Defending American Democracy said they filed the complaint with the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, which oversees the practice of law in Colorado. States United Democracy Center filed a previous complaint against Ellis in May 2022 that led to a public censure for her conduct.
In October, Ellis pleaded guilty to a felony charge in Georgia of aiding and abetting false statements and writings related to efforts to overturn Trump’s election loss there.
“The lies that Jenna Ellis helped spread about fraud and misconduct by Georgia voters and election administrators poisoned public trust in our elections, endangered election workers and threatened our democracy,” Gillian Feiner, senior counsel at the States United Democracy Center, said in a statement. “Attorneys who commit crimes like this must face serious professional consequences. Ellis should be disbarred.”
An attorney for Ellis did not immediately return a request for comment Friday morning.
Ellis is a Longmont native who joined Trump’s presidential campaign in early 2019. In December 2020, she joined fellow Trump attorney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Georgia-based attorney Ray Smith for a meeting with Georgia state senators, according to Georgia prosecutor Daysha Young. There, she “aided and abetted” the other two as they made false statements to the lawmakers that tens of thousands of illegal votes were cast in the state, Young told the court ahead of Ellis’ plea deal.
Those false statements represent a deeper betrayal of the public’s trust than the falsehoods underpinning her previous censure, the letter calling for her disbarment states. The previous censure stemmed from claims on social media and in media appearances that the election was stolen. The false claims that led to the Georgia case were specifically made to elected officials and sought to undermine the state’s elections and “threaten democracy as a whole,” according to the complaint.
The complaint was cosigned by several former elected officials, including Democratic and Republican former state attorneys general, former governors and others.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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