By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — A former attorney for the Trump 2020 campaign has agreed to cooperate in prosecuting fake electors and their allies in Arizona in exchange for having conspiracy and eight other felony charges dropped against her.

In a new agreement, Jenna Ellis said she will not only give interviews to investigators from the state Attorney General’s Office but also testify wherever they want, including grand jury proceedings and any civil or criminal trials. She also agreed to turn over any documents she has related to the probe.

Ellis played a key role in arguing in Arizona and elsewhere there was fraud in the 2020 race and that Trump should have been elected. She specifically worked with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to convince lawmakers in Arizona to move to overturn the election results.

That includes not only a legislative “hearing” at a downtown Phoenix hotel but also separate meetings with Republican lawmakers.

This also relates to the indictment of 11 Republicans who submitted documents to Congress that Trump had won the popular vote in Arizona — he actually lost by more than 10,000 — and that it is their electoral votes that should be counted.

The indictment charges that Ellis encouraged then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the Jan. 6, 2021 congressional counting of the electoral votes, to accept the fake votes of the GOP electors.

Ellis also was the author of various legal memos that, according to prosecutors in other states, laid out the strategies for state lawmakers to advance baseless claims of voters fraud as well as how to disrupt the counting of electoral votes.

Attorney General Kris Mayes called the agreement “a significant step forward in our case.” More to the point, Mayes made it clear she believes that having testimony and documents from Ellis.

“Her insights are invaluable and will greatly aid the state in proving its case in court,” Mayes said in a prepared statement.

“As I stated when the initial charges were announced, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined — it is far too important,” the attorney general said. “Today’s announcement is a win for the rule of law.”

Ellis released a statement Monday afternoon from her attorneys saying they are glad the indictment has gone away.

"She was not involved in the so-called 'fake elector' scheme," said Matt Brown and Matt Melito in the prepared statement. "Jenna was originally told she was not a target and her cooperation is her continued willingness to tell the truth."

This isn't the first of those involve in the events following the 2020 election to agree to work with Mayes.

This isn’t the first of those involve in the events following the 2020 election to agree to work with Mayes.

Kenneth Chesebro, who had been a legal adviser to the Trump campaign, already had met with investigators in Arizona even before the indictment was issued in April.

He was not among those charged. Mayes already has put him on a list of witnesses she intends to call when the case goes to trial.

This isn’t Ellis’ first decision to work with prosecutors on cases involving fake electors.

She pleaded guilty in Georgia last year to a single felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. That resulted in dismissal of various other felonies, including soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer as well as violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

In entering the plea there, Ellis told the judge she acted after relying on information from other attorneys who had more experience.

“What I did not do but should have done, your honor, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true we in fact true,” she said.

She was sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution.