The Craven Surrender of Jenna Ellis

Trump Election Lawyer Chooses Self over MAGA

These times call for great courage from patriots, especially and uniquely from conservative professionals.  As the Left consolidates its hold over powerful institutions, those who wish to participate in certain lucrative trades face growing pressure to bend their knee to the Left to keep what they have.  That dynamic is especially true of attorneys, who hold the keys to a legal system that now leans decidedly against conservative and Christian values.

Such firmness of purpose for our cause carries costs, yet it is essential.  Those who fail to stand firm must, at a minimum, lose some of our respect.  For there is no hope for ensuring election integrity if MAGA candidates can’t challenge leftist chicanery in court.  There’s still less chance if their lawyers can’t vigorously defend MAGA candidates and principles in public. 

This week, the Left took important ground in their campaign to silence MAGA candidates and install their totalitarian vision for the future.  Mark Finchem, Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona Secretary of State, was the latest MAGA candidate to be sanctioned by the courts for challenging the shady election practices last year in the Grand Canyon State.  This follows the sanctions imposed on Kari Lake and her attorneys, including Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, in both federal and state court.  Notably, Finchem’s attorney admitted in open court his fear of disbarment simply for daring to represent Finchem in court on the matter.  He only took the case, he explained, after more experienced attorneys were scared off.

These fears are rational.  Through such allies as the 65 Project, the Left is openly exploiting the leftward tilt in the legal system today to attempt to disbar all Trump election attorneys.  Those attorneys who have stood up to them, such as Mayor Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, remain in the crosshairs.  Their bravery is inspiring.

MAGA Thrown Overboard

In contrast to this bold stand comes disturbing news from Colorado.  Jenna Ellis is a young conservative lawyer who has parlayed her work and notoriety as part of President Trump’s 2020 legal team into a national podcast show.  The 65 Project filed a legal ethics complaint against Ellis in her home state of Colorado, demanding discipline—up to and including possible disbarment—for public statements she made defending President Trump and his campaign.

This week, Ellis caved.  As part of a settlement agreement with the disciplinary authorities who control her law license, she admitted to spreading “misrepresentations” to the public by repeating claims that Trump had been cheated in the 2020 elections.  In exchange, Ellis was merely censured for professional misconduct.  Her life as a lawyer continues, albeit with a significant professional stain that undermines her future work and places an asterisk next to every future public statement she makes.

To be clear, when I speak of Ellis’ actions, I carry much empathy.  The same leftist disciplinary office in Colorado that handled the 65 Project bar complaint against her sent their lawyers south from the Centennial State to Arizona, over a decade ago, to go after me.  Still, Ellis’ admissions should shock the MAGA faithful.  They are very damaging to the Trump campaign and the MAGA movement.  The Democratic Left will recite them forever.

As part of her censure deal with the Colorado Supreme Court, Ellis admitted to making 10 “misrepresentations” by defending the Trump campaign’s criticisms of the 2020 elections.  Ellis stipulated that her statements “undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public.”  Also, she agreed that she had “selfish motives” for making these allegations.

Now, thanks to Jenna Ellis’ settlement agreement, lawyers are effectively forbidden to publicly challenge the fairness of the 2020 election.

What exactly were Ellis’ supposedly outlandish claims?  They included public statements such as, “The election was stolen and Trump won by a landslide.”  And, “The proper and true victor . . . is Donald Trump.”  These are statements that most Republican voters, according to pollsters, still believe to be true.  Now, thanks to the Ellis case, lawyers are effectively forbidden to speak them lest they suffer professional discipline.

To finesse her surrender, Ellis has resorted to the same sort of spin control we’re used to seeing from RINO politicians.  “They’re now trying to falsely discredit me by saying I admitted I lied,” Ellis tweeted. “That is FALSE. I would NEVER lie. Lying requires INTENTIONALLY making a false statement. I never did that, nor did I stipulate to or admit that.”  She noted that the standard she admitted to violating involves “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, OR misrepresentation.” 

Obviously, this is splitting hairs.  The difference between recklessly “making misrepresentations” and lying is a distinction only a Clinton could appreciate. Either way, the Trump campaign is left hung out to dry. Besides, all of her statements offered in self-defense can no longer be taken at face value because they come from someone who just admitted making numerous “misrepresentations” for “selfish” reasons (see how this will haunt her credibility hereafter?). 

The bottom line? In addition to more specific concessions, Ellis admitted to misleading Americans essentially and merely by seconding Trump’s argument that the 2020 elections were fundamentally not on the up and up.  To placate the legal demons threatening to confiscate her livelihood, she said she misled Americans by saying what most Republicans believe but leftist-dominated institutions deny:  that there were serious, election-affecting irregularities plaguing the final vote tallies in 2020.

Ellis has further played the RINO by taking shots at Kari Lake, even arguing that Lake should not pursue her appeal in the Arizona Governor’s race, despite many serious and well-documented concerns over the conduct of the state’s elections in 2022. 

Fair-Weather Believers

One of Ellis’ observations certainly has merit. Ellis claims that she was the victim of “political lawfare to intimidate lawyers from representing Trump or Republican candidates.” No doubt. But then why did she not stand up to these threats?  Yes, the Christian life requires sacrifices, sometimes immense ones (2 Tim. 3:12).  To yield so swiftly to the leftist enemies of the Christian beliefs she espouses on her show and social-media accounts simply reinforces the view that she is, like many a RINO politician, fundamentally focused on advancing her career rather than a greater cause.

Predictably the Fake News Media gleefully reported her admissions, which Ellis readily could have fought had she found the heart to do so.  The Colorado disciplinary authorities themselves admitted in the settlement paperwork that Ellis’ case was “novel and one of first impression.” That’s precisely because strong First Amendment considerations protect attorneys’ representation of clients. State bars never before have tried to regulate such speech in an obviously one-sided political manner.

Defending their clients publicly, even those they know or strongly suspect are guilty, is what lawyers have done for centuries.  In fact, that’s almost exclusively what criminal defense lawyers do.  Now, thanks to the Ellis precedent, there is a new double standard in the law:  Attorneys can defend their clients robustly in the public square unless they are right-leaning and threatening to the Left.

In recent years, a number of high-profile attorneys whose careers have been targeted by the Left have given the last full measure of professional devotion to oppose the leftist takeover of the law and American society. Other such attorneys stand on the chopping block today for their beliefs. Jenna Ellis chose a different path.  Her easy capitulation saved her career but tarnished her soul.