Lawyer Jenna Ellis, who just pleaded guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, may in her own way be the archetypal Donald Trump acolyte: a faintly hucksterish opportunist from the periphery of conservative and evangelical politics raised to prominence by her association with the former US president, only to be disgraced and humiliated by it.
Ellis is a former assistant district attorney in Weld County, Colorado, who self-published books on Christian interpretations of the US constitution and dubiously affixed “professor” to her title in media appearances she started making with increasing regularity after the DA fired her in 2013 for “mistakes”. In 2015 and 2016 those appearances were largely dedicated to excoriating then-candidate Trump.
Trump, according to that iteration of Ellis, was “boorish and arrogant”, an “idiot” and a “bully”.
“Why should we rest our highest office in America on a man who fundamentally goes back and forth and really cannot be trusted to be consistent or accurate in anything?” Ellis asked during an April 2016 radio appearance.
At the same time, she made a series of Facebook posts noting Trump’s “disgusting” comments about women (one of the few such posts she seems to have forgotten to delete), arguing he was not a “real Christian”, and that his values were “not American”.
She shared articles that called Trump an “American fascist” and raged elsewhere that he was an “unethical, corrupt, lying, criminal, dirtbag”. And just to show the past is a foreign country, she referred to him as “Drumpf”, back when we were convincing ourselves that might influence things.
Around the time Trump defied the odds and the polls to win, Ellis coincidentally began to rethink her stance. Across 2017 and 2018 she regularly appeared on Fox, now apparently a “constitutional law attorney” offering Trump her full-throated support. By November 2019, it had got her a job as Trump’s campaign adviser, and almost exactly a year later she was beside former Trump lawyers and co-defendants Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell at a press conference presenting false evidence of election fraud and baseless accusations of voter suppression. Her mugshot, one of 18 taken by Fulton County, stood out as she was the only one of the accused to sport a broad grin.
Ellis appears now to have had another change of heart. Earlier this year she was censured by a Colorado judge and signed a legal acknowledgement that “she made a number of public statements about the November 2020 presidential election that were false” with a “reckless state of mind” and with “a selfish motive”.
On Tuesday, pleading guilty in return for a lesser charge, she tearfully declared:
In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia, I failed to do my due diligence. If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse.
By the time of her guilty plea, she had raised more than US$200,000 from supporters to fight the case.
Ellis is the third member of Trump’s legal team, and fourth defendant overall, to flip on him. Sidney Powell — possibly the loudest exponent of the “stop the steal” movement to become a fixture on a supine Fox News — and, possibly most significantly, “captain of the legal team” Kenneth Chesebro both took plea deals, meaning reduced charges in return for testimony against their co-defendants. The more high-profile people flip, the closer the walls close in on figures like Trump and Rudy Giuliani.
So it may be true to say — to quote a December 2015 Facebook post still unaccountably available on Ellis’ public page — we are in the last days. One way or another.
Will Donald Trump’s legal strife stop him from securing the Republican nomination — or even a second term? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
What a coterie of lowlife chancers Trump has surrounded himself with. It almost looks like the collection of useful idiots surrounding Dutton.
Correction -” useful idiots surrounding and supporting Dutton.”
Just re-watched the Sarah Ferguson interview with Sidney Powell. It caused a stir in USA at the time as none of the people or media supporting Trump’s stolen election cause had faced such determined questioning about the base of their claims.
Last night I watched Ferguson interview the recently released Cheng Lei. She is a very capable tv journalist – not many others I would make similar statements about.
Thanks for the credit given Sarah Ferguson .. a gem.
Is that the same Sarah Ferguson who interviewed Steve Bannon and informed him that he was not a racist, then after posed for a selfie with him; hardly exemplifies objectivity, more like awe for a fellow traveller?
Trump is beginning to crack i reckon. I listened to bits of a recent rally speech, and he is noticeably less competent a stage performer.
in the past, even when he was talking balls and jumping from point to point in that bizarro stream of consciousness way he has, he still delivered like an old pro stand-up, riffing away with total confidence, and his audience responded to that power by being his adoring lapdogs.
Well, he is losing that. There are definite moments where you feel even his most ardent admirers are starting to scratch their heads, as he talks about being electrocuted vs being eaten by a shark, or telling the crowd not to worry about voting, or pauses interminably trying to remember why he started talking about Viktor Orban – who no one in the crowd would know anyway. He’s just not stitching the pieces together as well anymore. Where’s the flow? Where are the punch lines? It’s too much ramble, even for Trump.
Trump likes to project that he is superhuman, and he certainly has extraordinary will-power, but even he can’t resist the enormous pressures bearing down on him, i feel.
Finally!
Similar Trumpian circles, UK Trade Advisor, prospective FoxBoard member, Hungarian Koch think tank ‘visitor’ Tony Abbott, his chum and fellow traveller, Viktor Orban has had issues of late.
Polish RW ally PiS out of power, people hit the street in force other day protesting Hungary government’s too close relationship with Putin and Xi (vs. EU); reported by the media that when he met Putin the other day, Orban was ‘visibly nervous’.
Their project is in decline like many of their ‘commissioners’ and voters….
Neurosyphlitic condition catching up with him?
Good stuff Charlie, but the non-nuanced suggestion of Trump having `won’ the 2016 election is painful. Losing by 3 million votes via an undemocratic election system should be acknowledged and remembered.
For clarity, make that .. losing by 3 million votes, yet `winning’ via an undemocratic …
I always point this out, the KKK endorsed Trump lost the popular vote by the biggest losing margin in history, to a woman, Hilary Clinton. The slave owners Electoral College appeasement creation won it for the KKK and Trump.
This is the classic approach to prosecuting mafia bosses – go after the smaller fish, turn them, and then the pentiti can testify against the capo.
Very appropriate too, the entire Donald Trump family needs to be incarcerated, the Drumpf Mafia of America.