(Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with Rudy Giuliani, will cooperate with Arizona prosecutors in exchange for charges being dropped against her in a lawfare case waged by the state’s far-left attorney general over the alternate slate of electors Republicans put forward during challenges to the 2020 election.
Ellis has previously pleaded not guilty to fraud, forgery and conspiracy charges in the Arizona case. Seventeen other people charged in the case have pleaded not guilty to the felony charges—including Giuliani, Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows and 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress declaring Trump had won Arizona.
The case bears similarities to one being waged in Georgia by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, although Trump himself is not among the Arizona co-defendants. Ellis previously struck a plea deal in the Georgia case, as did three others.
“Her insights are invaluable and will greatly aid the State in proving its case in court,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement.
“As I stated when the initial charges were announced, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined—it is far too important,” Mayes claimed. “Today’s announcement is a win for the rule of law.”
Ellis had pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. The cooperation agreement signed by Ellis in the Arizona case requires her to provide truthful information to the Attorney General’s Office and testify honestly in proceedings in any state or federal court. Prosecutors can withdraw from the deal and refile charges if Ellis violates the agreement.
Prosecutors have already asked a court to dismiss the Arizona charges against Ellis. It wasn’t immediately clear if a judge had yet approved the request.
The Associated Press left messages with Ellis’s attorney, Matthew Brown, after the agreement was announced Monday.
Prosecutors accused Ellis of making false claims of widespread election fraud in the state and six others, encouraging the Arizona Legislature to change the outcome of the election and encouraging then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept Arizona’s alternate elector votes on behalf of Trump.
Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs—now the governor—certified Biden the winner by a margin of 10,457 votes, or roughly 0.3% of the total. However, Trump’s campaign and allies continued to press legal challenges. A subsequent audit of the vote found significant irreguarities in Maricopa County, including more returned mail-in ballots than were documented as having been sent out.
The difference was enough to more than cover Biden’s supposed margin of victory.
Hobbs and Mayes both won higher office in yet another heavily disputed and suspicious 2022 race, and then eagerly set about attacking their opponents with lawsuits that would have a chilling efferct on future efforts to challenge or second-guess the vote count.
The indictment said Ellis, Giuliani and other associates were at a meeting at the Arizona Legislature on Dec. 1, 2020, with then-House Speaker Rusty Bowers and other Republicans when Giuliani and his team asked the speaker to hold a committee hearing on the election.
When Bowers asked for proof of election fraud, Giuliani said he had proof but Ellis had advised that it was left back at a hotel room, the indictment said.
Ellis also is barred from practicing law in Colorado for three years after her guilty plea in Georgia.
Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the alternate electors plan—despite the fact that there is historical precedent in its use and strong reason to suspect Democrats would have done something similar
Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges in late April. Overall, charges were brought against 11 Republican electors, five lawyers connected to the former president and two former Trump aides. Trump was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment.
The 11 people who claimed to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and asserting that Trump carried the state.
A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.
The Signing. pic.twitter.com/6gPsfqrk7T
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) December 14, 2020
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
