Trump attorney admits misrepresenting evidence of election fraud
Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented former President Trump, admitted in court that she made various misrepresentations on social media and major television appearances about the 2020 presidential election, leading a judge to issue a public censure on Wednesday.
Ellis, who was part of the former president’s efforts to challenge the legitimacy of his election loss, admitted to 10 misrepresentations about the election results, including statements made on Twitter and television programs on Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC and Newsmax.
“The parties agree that Respondent, through her conduct, undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public,” Bryon Large, Colorado’s presiding disciplinary judge, wrote in his opinion.
Ellis and the state’s judicial discipline office last month stipulated to the misconduct and concurred that it warranted the censure, court documents show. Ellis agreed to pay $224 in connection with the censure, and Large signed off on the filing on Wednesday.
The misrepresentations include a number of false claims, including Ellis suggesting the election was “stolen” during multiple television appearances and that Trump “actually won in a landslide.”
All of the stipulated statements took place between Nov. 13 and Dec. 22, 2020. The list includes misrepresentations promoted during appearances on Fox News’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” MSNBC’s “The Ari Melber Show,” Newsmax’s “Spicer & Co” and “Greg Kelly Reports” as well as Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria.”
Ellis agreed that her statements violated Colorado's Rules of Professional Conduct, which prohibits lawyers from engaging in dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, but on Twitter Thursday she said the case "was politically motivated from the start from Democrats and Never Trumpers."
"They ultimately failed to destroy me and failed in their attempt to deprive me of my bar license. I’m glad to have this behind me and remain in good standing in the State of Colorado," she said.
The 65 Project, a nonprofit group that targets lawyers who bring lawsuits to overturn legitimate election results, first filed the bar complaint against Ellis last March.
“[T]he year it took to reach this outcome highlights the need for revamped and revitalized disciplinary process,” The 65 Project Managing Director Michael Teter said in a statement.
“It should not take 366 days to hold accountable a lawyer who, in a few short weeks of constant lies and misrepresentations, placed American democracy in such jeopardy," Teter added. "Nor is a public censure a particularly satisfying outcome when one considers the direct line between Ms. Ellis’s deliberate actions and the attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6th.”
She was not counsel of record for any of the dozens of lawsuits the Trump campaign brought following the election, but Ellis is the latest prominent member of the then-president’s legal team to face disciplinary action.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani already had his law license suspended, and Jeffrey Clark, an attorney at the Justice Department who Trump weighed installing as attorney general to investigate the fraud claims Giuliani is now being reprimanded over, also faces disciplinary action before the board.
—Updated at 1:16 p.m.