Latest Guilty Plea In Georgia Elections Case ‘Very, Very Ominous’ For Donald Trump

With former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis pleading guilty on Tuesday to charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen said “this is very, very ominous” for Trump “as a state and federal criminal defendant.”

Ellis, who was one of the lawyers who worked furiously in the weeks after the 2020 election on Trump’s behalf, said in a Fulton County courtroom that she “failed to do my due diligence. I believe in and I value election integrity,” she said.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” Ellis said, “I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse.”

With her guilty plea, Ellis becomes the third former Trump attorney to agree to cooperate with prosecutors in the Georgia case, following Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, the lawyer who led the effort to bring forward fake Trump electors in key swing states won by Joe Biden. Ellis agreed to be sentenced to five years probation, to pay $5,000 in restitution, and perform 100 hours of community service.

On CNN Tuesday morning, Eisen said that Ellis’ tearful testimony would be “very powerful for a jury,” adding to the legal pressure on Trump and his most high profile former attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Eisen said that Ellis “admitting that these falsehoods that Donald Trump continues to push on the campaign trail were lies” gives prosecutors enormous power if Trump’s case goes before a jury.

Just yesterday, Trump told reporters in New Hampshire that he “did nothing wrong,” and claimed that “I was never indicted,” despite the fact that he has, in fact, been indicted four times.

As CNN pointed during the network’s coverage of Ellis’ plea, the former Trump attorney seemed to implicate Giuliani in her statement. “Today’s plea is important,” Eisen said. “Ms. Ellis really spoke to the false facts” behind Trump’s post-election statements and legal efforts—which Giuliani relentlessly advocated in television interviews and court filings.

“I relied on others, including lawyers with many more years of experience than I,” Ellis said, “to provide me with true and reliable information, especially since my role involved speaking to the media and to legislators in various states.”

CNN correspondent Nick Valencia—who was the only journalist in the courtroom as Ellis made her emotional statement to the court—said “the dominoes are starting to fall against the former president,” calling today’s plea “another major blow to his defense.”