Jenna Ellis has joined other ex-lawyers of Donald Trump in having their law license pulled in their home state, with the Colorado Supreme Court approving a deal Tuesday that will suspend her from practicing law there for three years.
It’s the latest fallout from the 2020 election to hit Ellis, who tearfully pleaded guilty in October to a felony in Georgia over her failed efforts to overturn Trump’s loss there.
Those efforts were central to Colorado officials’ attempts to bar Ellis from practicing law in the Centennial State, as Colorado law prohibits attorneys from practicing there while they’re incarcerated or on probation from a criminal conviction.
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Ellis was sentenced to five years probation in the Georgia case and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. She also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Trump and other co-defendants.
In her Colorado agreement, Ellis conceded that she “caused significant actual harm in a variety of ways” and “undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election process,” the Associated Press reported.
It’s a more lenient outcome for Ellis compared to others who concocted illegal ways for Trump to potentially undermine Joe Biden’s election win.
Trump attorney John Eastman, nicknamed the “architect” of the ex-president’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election results, has been disbarred in California for his post-election work. The California Supreme Court is still to weigh in on the case definitively, but he is disbarred from practicing in the meantime. Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, has had his law license suspended in Washington and New York, with efforts ongoing to make that situation permanent.
For Ellis to be reinstated as a Colorado lawyer, she’ll have to successfully petition to the state starting in May 2027. Likely helping Ellis’ case has been her repeated public comments showing remorse for her role in the Big Lie.
“While disbarment is the presumptive sanction for (Ellis’) misconduct, it is significant that her criminal culpability was due to her conduct as an accessory, not as a principle,” Colorado’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel wrote in a stipulation over her suspension. “She has also expressed remorse and has recognized the harm caused by her misconduct and has taken significant, concrete steps to mitigate the harm her misconduct has caused.”
In a letter dated May 22, Ellis explains that she pleaded guilty “because I want to tell the truth.” She expressed “deep remorse” and acknowledged “the harm my misconduct caused.”
She added: “I do not do this as a political calculation, out of anger toward my former client, or for any other ways some may try to undermine or discredit my statement here, which is simply this: I am choosing to take responsibility for my actions and my association with the harm caused to this nation by the post-election activities of 2020 on behalf of then-President Donald Trump. I was wrong to be involved.”
