The former president is finding that one-way loyalty has its limits.
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Serial plea-copper Jenna Ellis has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors in yet another fake elector case, this one in Arizona. She previously filed a guilty plea and cooperated in the racketeering case in Georgia in which Donald Trump is a co-defendant. Ellis played a major role in advising Trump during his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, right up until the day he left office in 2021.
In Georgia, Ellis pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, a felony. Two other Trump attorneys — Sidney “Kraken” Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro, who was one of the architects of the fake elector scheme — also pleaded guilty in the Georgia case.
Colorado suspended Ellis’s law license in May as a result of her guilty plea in Georgia. The Colorado bar also accused her of making multiple “misrepresentations” about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election during television interviews and on social media. The suspension of Ellis’s law license began on July 2, leaving her with no way to earn a living from the practice of law.
The Arizona case also charges 11 Republican Party officials who met at party headquarters in Phoenix and signed fake certificates saying they were legitimate electors for Trump. The certificates were sent to the National Archives, along with the real elector certificates for Joe Biden, and were used by Republicans on January 6 to justify challenging the count and certification of electoral ballots that declared Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Ellis will be able to testify about her role in the fake elector scheme in Arizona and her meetings with other Trump lawyers in the planning and carrying out of the scheme.
Ellis told prosecutors in Georgia that Trump did not plan “under any circumstances” to leave the presidency after he lost the election in 2020, according to a video deposition obtained by ABC News. Ellis described a conversation she had with former White House aide Dan Scavino on December 19, 2020:
He said, “The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.” And I said to him, “Well, it doesn’t quite work that way, you realize.” And he said, “We don’t care.”
Presumably, Ellis will be providing the same testimony to prosecutors in Arizona regarding her access to White House planning for the fake elector scheme.
Of the 44 former Cabinet officials under Trump, only four have said that they endorse him and will vote for him in November.
Donald Trump has famously prized loyalty by his followers and aides above all else. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that half of the department secretaries who served in Trump’s cabinet have said they are not supporting his candidacy for president. Of the 44 former Cabinet officials under Trump, only four have said that they endorse him and will vote for him in November.
The cracks in the wall of loyalty and silence around Trump are getting wider and deeper, never a good sign for him with just 90 days until the election.
Reprinted, with permission, from the Lucian Truscott Newsletter. Lucian K. Truscott IV has had a career spanning five decades as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter.
