Fact Check: Does an Emotional Jenna Ellis Regret Taking Now-Disgraced Fani Willis’ Plea Deal

As if it matters at this point, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has been taken off the Donald Trump election interference case. But does that mean that one of the women who pleaded guilty and agreed to work with prosecutors there, betraying Trump in the process, is now in tears?

That’s what people on social media would like you to think — but the evidence isn’t there.

In case you missed it during the Christmas season whirlwind: On Dec. 19, a Georgia state appeals court ruled that Willis should be disqualified from the Trump election interference case in what The Associated Press described as “the latest legal victory for the president-elect in criminal cases that once threatened his career and freedom.”

In Georgia, prosecutors had essentially filed Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, charges against not only Trump but numerous members of his legal team, including Ellis. Most of this was based on a call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in the wake of the 2020 election, asking him to pursue voter fraud investigations. However, several individuals pleaded guilty to lesser crimes — including Ellis, who described herself as being part of a “elite strike force team” that challenged the 2020 results.

“Ms. Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, a felony. She is the fourth defendant to plead guilty in the Georgia case, which charged Mr. Trump and 18 others with conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Mr. Trump’s favor,” The New York Times reported in October of 2023.

“Ms. Ellis agreed to be sentenced to five years of probation, pay $5,000 in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service. She has already written an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia, and she agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors as the case progresses.”

That last paragraph is probably the operative one: Ellis saw a literal get-out-of-jail-free card and took it. Willis hoped that giving deals to her and others tangentially involved in this alleged RICO gang could get her to trial before the 2024 election happened. And then, her inappropriate romantic relationship with a special prosecutor she hired to lead the prosecution, Nathan Wade, tied it up in the courts.

Now, given that sitting presidents are essentially immune from prosecution through the usual state system, not only would Georgia have to wait another four years to try this but try it with a different prosecutor entirely, if the ruling holds: “Citing an ‘appearance of impropriety’ that might not typically warrant such a removal, a Georgia Court of Appeals panel said in a 2-1 ruling that ‘this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,’” the AP noted. “Willis’ office immediately filed a notice of intent to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to review the decision.”

Well, as our outgoing mumbler-in-chief might say, “lots of luck in your senior year” on that one. Given the state of the case, however, is Ellis tearfully regretful about turning her back on the president-elect? One popular pundit on social media says she is in a post that’s gone viral.

“Bad Hombre,” who has 135,000 followers on X, said he got this “[f]rom a source close to Jenna Ellis.”

“Jenna is grappling with deep regret over her decision to accept plea deals in Arizona and Georgia under the direction of Fani Willis,” he wrote the afternoon of Dec. 20, after the decision had been announced.

“She now believes it was the greatest mistake of her life, especially as her charges likely would have been dropped, and Willis herself has since been dismissed from the case. According to the source, Jenna has been in emotional turmoil, often calling in tears multiple times a week.

“Her professional life has suffered significant blows: Salem Podcast Media is reportedly threatening to cancel her show, ‘Jenna Ellis Tonight,’ due to dismal viewership, while her morning podcast has also struggled to gain traction.

“Having lost her law license, a return to her legal career is no longer an option. Desperate to repair her image, Jenna has sought advice from friends on how to rebrand herself as a MAGA supporter and win back Trump’s favor,” he continued. “However, those closest to her have told her it’s too late — that ship has sailed. Even attempts to reconnect with former allies have been met with silence. Calls and s to secure invitations to Mar-a-Lago events, even as a member of the press, go unanswered.”

Included was a side-by-side photo of Willis looking stern and Ellis crying:

From a source close to Jenna Ellis:
Jenna is grappling with deep regret over her decision to accept plea deals in Arizona and Georgia under the direction of Fani Willis. She now believes it was the greatest mistake of her life, especially as her charges likely would have been… pic.twitter.com/C7DxuynFui

— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) December 20, 2024

Look, I’m not denying that this probably couldn’t happen to a better opportunist if it were to have happened. (Fani Willis also comes to mind, but she has a different set of problems now.) The problem is, as Ellis herself pointed out in a reply, that version of events contains multiple verifiable factual errors, especially when it supposedly comes from a source close to her.

“This is a bad faith attempt to elicit a comment from me,” she responded several hours later. “I’ll simply point out (as the source closest to myself) that this entire post is a work of fiction and a lie.

“In fact, it’s so bad that this idiot doesn’t even know that I left Salem media at the end of August to accept a full-time position with the American Family Association, including becoming their senior policy advisor, where I’ve been hosting my national radio show ‘Jenna Ellis in the Morning’ for the past two years,” she continued.

She added that “Bad Hombre” has an animus against her “because I supported Governor DeSantis” in the 2020 Republican primaries. “What an embarrassment for him to post such nonsense. I guess he’s just living up to his chosen handle: a bad actor.”

This is a bad faith attempt to elicit a comment from me.

I’ll simply point out (as the source closest to myself) that this entire post is a work of fiction and a lie.

In fact, it’s so bad that this idiot doesn’t even know that I left Salem media at the end of August to accept a…

— Jenna Ellis 🐊 (@realJennaEllis) December 20, 2024

Oh, and she also pointed out several other problems here: She didn’t lose her law license (although it’s suspended for three years) and she didn’t take a plea deal in Arizona, either, instead choosing to cooperate with prosecutors in Arizona as part of an agreement.

Also, I didn’t lose my law license. Geez there are too many lies in this dude’s post to even count! 😂 @CommunityNotes

— Jenna Ellis 🐊 (@realJennaEllis) December 20, 2024

It’s worth noting that there aren’t many other circumstances in life where, “Hah, I pleaded guilty to a weaksauce felony in an even weaker case for a slap on the wrist that didn’t include losing my law license entirely, but which probably would have been dismissed had I waited it out — and also my political fortunes within the Republican Party are finished, at least for the foreseeable future” is an own, but in this case it manages to be. Congratulations, I suppose?

Whatever the case, this is more proof for President Abraham Lincoln’s old maxim: “The problem with information that you read on the internet is that it is not always true.”

A simple web search or ChatGPT prompt could have cleared up exactly what Ellis had pleaded guilty to and the state of her law license, both of which this “source close to Jenna Ellis” got wrong. That would have told me I was dealing with someone feeding me bovine manure — unless, of course, I was the one making up the bovine manure, which is even worse.

I’m not sure which one is accurate, nor am I particularly interested in finding out; one of the advantages of Trump’s win in November — among many, many others — is that I don’t picture myself, or anyone else, thinking too much about Ellis fate or Willis’ absurd RICO lawfare case for the next four years. Apparently, this does not include Mr. Hombre, who felt the need to something regarding the two that’s factually inaccurate on several levels, and which makes it rather unbelievable on all the others. He, along with the rest of sensible America, should pull a Princess Elsa and let it go.

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