Jenna Ellis, one of the attorneys who was involved in promoting Trump’s effort to stay in power after the last presidential election, has been censured in a Colorado court, according to the terms of an agreement she struck with an authority for lawyers in the state that was subsequently approved by a judge.
Censure generally constitutes something along the rhetorical lines of a public rebuke, and as part of the arrangement, Ellis admitted that a specific series of claims she made about the 2020 presidential election were false. The whole thing seems like it could impact her professional credibility and standing — although her ties to Trump probably meant she was already bound for difficulty on that front. Specifically, Ellis was among those who alleged there was an intentional conspiracy underlying imaginary systematic fraud that Trump and others claimed — and in some cases, still claim — drove his 2020 loss.
The judge responsible for approving the agreement was Presiding Disciplinary Judge Bryon M. Large. Her specifically disputed statements were made with what the judge identified as “at least a reckless state of mind.” Large also wrote, Colorado Newsline noted, that Ellis admitted behavior of hers around the race “undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public.” Not only did she claim an intentional conspiracy, Ellis alleged in her challenged statements that such could be proven. “With all those states… combined we know that the election was stolen from President Trump and we can prove that,” she told former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in an interview within weeks of the last presidential election.
Colorado Newsline also had a statement from Jessica Yates, the authority over attorneys in Colorado with whom Ellis struck the agreement. “The public censure in this matter reinforces that even if engaged in political speech, there is a line attorneys cannot cross, particularly when they are speaking in a representative capacity,” Yates said. Whether it’s Rudy Giuliani facing disciplinary proceedings in D.C., fellow ex-Trump attorney John Eastman grappling with the threat of disbarment from legal authorities in California, or former Trump White House lawyer Stefan Passantino facing a push for his disbarment over his handling of representation for ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson during the House’s now defunct probe into January 6, it’s not a great time to be a lawyer connected to the ex-president — although such might never have been great.
