Three Year Suspension For Jenna Ellis
A three-year suspension with fitness has been accepted on stipulation by the Colorado Presiding Disciplinary Judge for misconduct relating to the 2020 Presidential election
On October 24, 2023, Ellis pleaded guilty in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, to the felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in violation of O.C.G.A. section 16-10-20. Ellis was sentenced to a five-year period of probation, which includes a variety of conditions. Ellis’s conviction is premised on her actions in intentionally aiding and abetting Rudolph William Louis Giuliani and Ray Stallings Smith III in knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully making seven false statements regarding the 2020 presidential election at a Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee meeting on December 3, 2020. At the time, Ellis was a senior legal advisor to the then-President of the United States and counsel to one or more persons or entities associated with his reelection campaign. Ellis attended the meeting as a lawyer and in furtherance of her work in those roles.
Through this conduct, Ellis violated Ga. RPC 3.3(a) and 3.9 (requiring a lawyer to exercise candor before a legislative or administrative tribunal in a nonadjudicative proceeding); Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(1) (it is a violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to violate or knowingly attempt to violate the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another); Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(2) (it is a violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to be convicted of a felony); Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(4) (prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in professional conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation); and Ga. RPC 8.4(a)(8) (it is a violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct “for a lawyer to commit a criminal act that relates to the lawyer’s fitness to practice law or reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer,” where the lawyer has admitted before a judge the commission of that act.
(Mike Frisch)