Jenna Ellis, and a paragraph that should terrify Donald Trump

Another plea deal!

(Jenna Ellis)

On Tuesday, attorney Jenna Ellis became the fourth person charged in the Georgia election fraud case to plead guilty, a move that adds to former president Donald Trump’s legal peril even as he coasts to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Ellis, one of the most high profile figures in the post-election media blitz aimed at cajoling state legislators and the conservative media into believing the lie that the election was stolen from Trump, admitted in an Atlanta court that “if I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse.”

Ellis pled guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. She will not face any jail time. Ellis joins attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro as well as bail bondsman Scott Hall in pleading guilty in the Georgia case.

All of which brings me to this paragraph from the Washington Post story on Ellis’ plea deal:

As part of their plea deals, Hall, Powell and Chesebro each recorded a lengthy video answering prosecutors’ questions about their roles and the roles of others in the alleged election interference conspiracy.

Which, well, whoa. Ellis, presumably, will be asked to do the same thing — provide detailed information about who knew what when in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.

Again, the Post is key on why this matters:

Ellis is the second co-defendant with known direct links to Trump to plead guilty in the case. A onetime Fox News regular who was hired in late 2019 as a legal adviser to the Trump campaign, Ellis was part of the post-2020 election legal team, appearing alongside [Rudy] Giuliani and pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell at press conferences where she echoed false claims of election fraud.

She worked closely with Giuliani, traveling to battleground states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania where prosecutors say she spoke to lawmakers urging them to reject the popular vote results in their states. The Georgia indictment also pointed to memos she wrote for Trump outlining how Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the election results.

I am no lawyer — sorry Mom! — but the way these prosecutions typically seem to work is that they turn the small fish to get to the medium fish in hopes of, eventually, getting to the big fish.

Ellis (and Powell) are small fish. But they know a hell of a lot about the legal strategy — orchestrated by Giuliani — underpinning the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Which means that their plea deals — and their unfettered cooperation with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office — squeezes Giuliani. Big time.

And if Giuliani feels pressured — and we already know that he has MAJOR financial problems due to his legal bills — well, then, he just might flip.

Which would be BIG trouble for one Donald John Trump.

Now. Legal analysts (and political pundits) have gone broke betting on Trump’s legal future. Yes, he faces four indictments (and 91 counts of wrongdoing) but he always seems to slither his way out of actual conviction.

I won’t make that mistake here. I have no idea if Trump will ultimately be convicted in the Georgia election fraud case.

But there is NO question that the last week, which has featured THREE attorneys affiliated with Trump’s election denialism pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate, suggests that the walls are closing in on the former president.