Jenna Ellis, an attorney who advised then-President Donald Trump when he tried to overturn the 2020 election results, was reprimanded for misconduct by a Colorado Supreme Court judge on Wednesday.
The Colorado Supreme Court Attorney’s Office said that Ellis violated a Colorado professional statute that prohibits attorneys from “misrepresenting themselves.”
The office said Ellis made a number of public statements about the 2020 election that were false.
“Public criticism on this matter reinforces that lawyers, even when engaging in political speeches, cannot cross a line, particularly when speaking in a representative capacity,” the office said in a statement.
Bryon M. Large, a chief disciplinary judge on the state Supreme Court, endorsed the reprimand.
In a statement, Large said Ellis had “repeatedly” made misrepresentations on national television and Twitter that undermined public confidence in the 2020 presidential election.
Last month, Ellis’ lawyer filed a clause agreeing to a public rebuke by his client and acknowledging ten post-election misstatements of 2020, including repeatedly claiming the election was stolen from Trump.
Ellis also acknowledged misleading comments stemming from claims she made to Fox Business about witness affidavits, voter intimidation and statistics that proved a “coordinated effort” to transfer votes from Trump to Biden. According to the signed agreement, she made similar claims on Twitter.
Fox News and Fox Corp. are facing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over airborne claims that the company “fixed” the 2020 election.
Ellis’ condition also noted that while she was a member of Trump’s legal team, she was not the attorney for any of the lawsuits challenging election results.
Ellis served as Trump’s chief legal adviser from February 2019 until shortly after he left office in January 2021. Ellis was admitted to the Colorado bar in 2011.
Large said the parties agreed that Ellis had a “selfish motive” and was engaging in a “pattern of wrongdoing.”
The parties also agreed that Ellis’s “conduct undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election and violated its duty of openness to the public,” Large wrote.
NBC News has reached out to Ellis’ attorney, Michael W. Melito, for comment.
Ellis has been involved in a number of investigations related to the 2020 election. Last year, she was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 House Committee and ordered to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to influence the state’s 2020 election. The jury recommended indicting over a dozen people last month, but those names have not been released.
The jury foreman told NBC News at the time: “There are certainly names that you will recognize, yes. There are also names that you may not know.”
