Jenna Ellis, attorney for Donald Trump, is the youngest attorney to be punished for her actions while working for the former president.
Ellis was reprimanded by a Colorado court after she admitted during a disciplinary hearing to misrepresenting evidence about the 2020 election, including falsely claiming it was “stolen” from Trump.
Ellis isn’t the first Trump attorney to face sanctions or even prosecution while defending the former president, but she is the first attorney to admit she misrepresented evidence of widespread voter fraud in the last election.
Other Trump attorneys are also facing disciplinary action after becoming involved in the former president’s post-election effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
Jenna Ellis, former legal counsel and aide to former President Donald Trump, speaks during the election night party for Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano at The Orchards May 17, 2022 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
In June 2021, Rudy Giuliani had his law license suspended after a New York court ruled that he had made “provenly false and misleading statements” about the 2020 election results. Giuliani could still lose his law license after a Washington, D.C. bar committee ruled in December 2022 that he broke at least one professional rule while helping Trump contest the 2020 election results.
In January 2023, Trump attorney John Eastman was indicted by the State Bar of California on 11 felonies for allegedly plotting with the former president a plan “not supported by fact or law” to carry through the 2020 election results Obstructing the counting of electoral votes to overturn certain states. Eastman’s attorney, Randall Miller, told Newsweek in January that his client disputes “every aspect” of the disciplinary proceedings against him.
Other Trump attorneys have also been fined for collaborating with Trump in a number of other cases and court cases involving the former president.
In January, US District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks condemned Trump and his attorney, Alina Habba, for filing a series of “frivolous” election lawsuits in 2016 alleging that Hillary Clinton and the FBI were conspiring to work together to get Trumps Accusing campaign team of colluding with Russia to hinder its chances of victory.
Middlebrooks also ordered Trump and Habba to pay nearly $938,000 in legal fees to the dozens of defendants named in their dismissed lawsuits.
Elsewhere, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years of house arrest in 2018 after pleading guilty to federal tax crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations related to hush money payments to two women – the adults Film actress Stormy Daniels, real — committed on behalf of Stephanie Clifford and Playboy model Karen McDougal — to keep secret alleged affairs between them and Trump ahead of the 2016 election.
In the most recent case, Colorado Chief Disciplinary Judge Bryon Large approved an agreement between the state’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel and an attorney for Ellis, in which Ellis agreed to be reprimanded after accepting that she was 10 public made misrepresentations.
In a six-page statement, Large listed the 10 examples in which Ellis misrepresented evidence about the 2020 election. These included:
On November 23, 2020, Defendant [Ellis] appeared on The Ari Melber Show on MSNBC and stated, “The election was stolen and Trump won by a landslide.” On December 3, 2020, the defendant appeared on Mornings with Maria on Fox Business and stated, “The outcome of this election is indeed fraudulent , it’s wrong and we understand [that] If we subtract all the illegal ballots, you can see that President Trump did indeed win by a landslide. On December 5, 2020, the Defendant appeared at Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox News and stated, “We have over 500,000 votes [in Arizona] who were illegally cast.”
Large added: “The respondent made these false statements on Twitter and on various television programs including Fox Business, MSNBC, Fox News and Newsmax.
“The parties agree that by making these misrepresentations against Colo. Violated RPC 8.4(c), which provides that it is professional misconduct for an attorney to engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deception or misrepresentation.”
Trump’s spokesman and an attorney for Ellis were emailed for comment.
