Former Trump lawyer agrees to cooperate in Arizona elector case

Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis has agreed to cooperate with authorities to avoid prison time by providing evidence in Arizona’s “fake electors” case surrounding the 2020 election. 

Ellis provided legal counsel to former President Donald Trump 2020 campaign. The lawyer was one of 18 defendants indicted earlier this year for disputing the results of the 2020 election in Arizona. Trump was not among those charged.

Democratic state Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Monday that Ellis agreed to cooperate with the investigation into the electors case. The case surrounds Republicans who have been accused of unlawfully attempting to deliver the state’s 11 electoral votes to Trump after the battleground race was called for President Joe Biden. 

Mayes said Ellis’s “insights are invaluable and will greatly aid the State in proving its case in court” in a statement announcing the deal. 

“As I stated when the initial charges were announced, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined — it is far too important. Today’s announcement is a win for the rule of law,” the Democratic attorney general continued. 

Arizona’s 2020 race between Trump and Biden was one of the closest in the country. Many major networks, including NBC, held off on calling the state for Biden until nine days after Election Day, with final tallies showing Trump lost by under 11,000 votes. 

Trump disputed the election results, telling supporters the following January, “In the state of Arizona, over 36,000 ballots were illegally cast by non-citizens. Two thousand ballots were returned with no address.”

No evidence has been found to back up his claims.

In December 2020, 11 Republicans concerned with alleged voter fraud gathered in Arizona’s capitol and signed a document claiming Trump had won the state. They said they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and sent the document to Congress.

Ellis was not one of the electors but was later indicted on charges of aiding their efforts to overturn the Arizona presidential election. The lawyer worked closely with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney, who was also indicted in the Arizona election case, to make the case that the GOP leader had legally won the battleground state.

In her new cooperation deal, Ellis agreed to “completely and truthfully” testify at future trials and provide information about her dealings with Giuliani. 

In exchange, Mayes confirmed that all nine felony charges against Ellis will be dropped and that she will avoid jail time.