Jenna Ellis’ problems may get worse

Having accepted a plea deal in one of Donald Trump’s election subversion cases, Jenna Ellis may have thought her legal woes were over.

Ellis, one of the ex-president’s former lawyers who is accused of drafting a letter to top state officials declaring the state’s election results in 2020 illegitimate, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a deal with Fulton County prosecutors in Georgia.

A grand jury last month hit Trump with charges of conspiracy to commit forgery, solicitation of violation of oath by a public official, and breaking Georgia’s anti-racketeering act. The former president has since pleaded not guilty.

A total of 18 other co-conspirators were also named in the indictment, including prominent Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

On Wednesday, Ellis pleaded guilty to one felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, and agreed to the prosecutor’s recommendations that she face five years of probation, pay a $5,00 fine in restitution, and perform 100 hours of community service.

But rather than that be the end of the saga, Ellis could now face renewed official scrutiny of her professional conduct, according to legal experts.

According to local reports, her guilty plea appears to trigger a review by Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel Jessica Yates, who investigates allegations of lawyer misconduct.

A criminal conviction obliges a lawyer who is licensed to practice in Colorado to report the conviction to report the conviction to Yates’ office within 14 days.

Newsweek has contacted representatives for Ellis, Yates and the Colorado Bar Association to comment on this story.

When Colorado Newsline asked Yates about the issue, she reportedly declined to discuss the case specifically but is quoted as saying lawyers are prohibited from committing “a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects,” and added, in an email:

“The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel reviews a self-report of a criminal conviction and the underlying facts in relation to that rule and our procedural rules, and may pursue discipline, an alternative to discipline, or other action consistent with all of those rules.”

Meanwhile, speaking to 9News, legal analyst Whitney Traylor said admitting to the “aggressive attempt” to “overthrow the election with no constitutional basis” may “ultimately hurt her in regard to her law license” because she told the judge in the case she failed to do her due diligence.

“That is the standard of a lawyer,” he continued. “When you look at when you are going to get disbarred it’s a matter of ‘did you meet your due diligence? Did you do what a reasonable lawyer would do?’ And she’s acknowledging, ‘no I didn’t do that,’ so she’s going to have a really tough case when that comes around.”

Meanwhile, last week another former Trump lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, pleaded guilty in the case, while on Thursday Sidney Powell, another ex-Trump lawyer, admitted six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit election interference in a court hearing in Atlanta.