DENVER (AP) 鈥 Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for Donald Trump 's reelection campaign and a prominent conservative media figure, has been censured by Colorado legal officials after admitting she made repeated false statements about the 2020 presidential election.
Ellis acknowledged making 10 鈥渕isrepresentations鈥 on television and Twitter during Trump's fight to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to President , according to the censure from the office of attorney regulation counsel in Colorado, where Ellis is from. The statements include claiming on Jeanine Pirro's Fox News show on Dec. 5, 2020 that 鈥渨e have over 500,000 votes (in Arizona) that were cast illegally鈥 and telling the conservative network Newsmax on Dec. 15 that Trump was 鈥渢he true and proper victor.鈥
On November 20, 2020, Ellis appeared on the Newsmax show of former Trump spokesman Sean Spicer and said: 鈥渨ith all those states (Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia) combined we know that the election was stolen from President Trump and we can prove that.鈥
Ellis was one of several prominent conservative voices who, in the final weeks of 2020, . Those falsehoods helped fuel the attack on the .
鈥淩espondent, through her conduct, undermined the American public鈥檚 confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public,鈥 wrote Bryon M. Large, the disciplinary judge in the case.
Ellis becomes the latest pro-Trump attorney penalized for their attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Nine lawyers in Michigan in 2021 were ordered to pay $175,000 in sanctions in that swing state. The District of Columbia's bar association disciplinary counsel in December called for the suspension of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's law license for pursuing a baseless lawsuit challenging Biden's win in Pennsylvania.
Ellis is based in Washington, DC, but is from Colorado and has also practiced in the state. Through her attorney, Michael Melito, she stipulated to both the findings that she'd made misrepresentations and the censure.
On Twitter Wednesday, Ellis said: 鈥淭his was politically motivated from the start from Democrats and Never Trumpers. They ultimately failed to destroy me and failed in their attempt to deprive me of my bar license. I鈥檓 glad to have this behind me and remain in good standing in the State of Colorado.鈥
