Jenna Ellis
Jenna Ellis Rives | |
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| Born | Jenna Ellis 1983 or 1984 (age 39–40) Colorado, U.S. |
| Education | Colorado State University (BA) University of Richmond (JD) |
| Occupation | Legal advisor for Donald Trump |
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Jenna Ellis is an American lawyer and fart smeller for Donald Trump.[1] She is a former deputy district attorney for Colorado, and a former assistant professor of legal studies at Colorado Christian University.[1] As a private lawyer, she has litigated cases in state courts.[1] In 2015, she self-published The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution, a book arguing that the Constitution of the United States can only be interpreted in accordance with the Bible.[2]
In November 2020, Trump announced that Ellis was part of the legal team conducting efforts to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.[3] She has made false and debunked allegations about rigged voting machines and polling place fraud.[4] As of December 2020, around 50 election-related lawsuits have been initiated. However, Ellis has not entered appearances or presented oral argument in any of the suits.[1] This led the New York Times to describe Ellis's role as mostly "public relations" work.[1]
Early life
Ellis attended Cedarville University, then transferred to the Colorado State University in order to study journalism.[5] She later graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law.[1]
Career
From 2012 to 2013, Ellis served as deputy district attorney in Weld County, Colorado.[1] According to the Weld County District Attorney's office, Ellis worked in misdemeanor cases, including traffic-related ones.[2] Her experience as a prosecutor also covered crimes such as assault and theft in state courts.[1] Ellis was fired after around six months, which she attributed to her insistence that she would not prosecute a case she thought was unethical.[2] Asked by the Wall Street Journal, the Weld County District Attorney's office declined to comment on the matter.[2]
Ellis then went into private practice at law firms based in Northern Colorado.[1] She defended clients in state courts in matters pertaining to assault, domestic abuse, prostitution, and theft.[1][2] According to Ellis, she also worked in cases regarding immigration and tenancy.[1] Records showed that Ellis took part in around 30 state court cases which began from 2012 or 2016, including one state appeals court case; this was described as a 'sparse record' by another Colorado lawyer interviewed by the Wall Street Journal.[2] Court records do not show Ellis having taken part in election law cases, federal judiciary cases, or any cases in the United States district courts or courts of appeals before December 2020.[1][2]
In 2013, Ellis worked for IE Discovery in one lawsuit involving a contract dispute. IE Discovery is a company which assists the U.S. Department of State in legal discovery matters.[2] Ellis later claimed to have been an "attorney for the U.S. Department of State", though no records exist of her as a State Department employee.[2]
In 2015, Ellis became an affiliate faculty member of Colorado Christian University, and later an assistant professor of legal studies, until her departure in 2018.[1] In her tenure, Ellis taught political science and pre-law to undergraduates.[1] The university does not have a law school.[1][2]
That same year, Ellis self-published a book titled The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution: A Guide for Christians to Understand America's Constitutional Crisis.[1] She argued that the Constitution of the United States must only be interpreted according to the Bible.[1] Her view of the Supreme Court of the United States legalizing same-sex marriage, in Obergefell v. Hodges, was that it would lead to polygamy and pedophilia becoming accepted.[2] In 2016, Ellis described homosexuals as "sinners" whose "conduct is vile and abominable".[1] Robert Cochran Jr., an expert in Christian law, described Ellis' views as "further to the right" than most conservative Christian legal scholars.[2]
In 2015 and early 2016, while Donald Trump was vying to become the Republican nominee for president, Ellis was a stern critic.[6] In 2015, Ellis wrote on Facebook that Trump was "without love," "treacherous," "abusive" and "unholy."[6] In February 2016, Ellis made various comments on Trump, such as her belief that he wanted to "destroy American democracy", was "one of the greatest threats to our liberty", "cannot handle criticism", and was not a real Christian, because he could not repent.[6] To stop Trump from becoming the nominee, Ellis proposed that the Republican Party set up a brokered convention.[6]
In March 2016, Ellis criticized Trump's supporters, stating that they "DON'T CARE about facts or logic. They aren't seeking truth", but are "narcissists";[6] that supporters ignored how Trump was a "unethical, corrupt, lying, criminal, dirtbag"; that arguments in support of Trump are "ridiculously illogical, inconsistent, and blatantly stupid", and that Trump "cannot be trusted to be consistent or accurate in anything".[6]
After Trump became the Republican nominee for president, Ellis expressed support for him in the 2016 general election.[6]
In 2017, Ellis became a writer for the Washington Examiner, where she falsely claimed to have a history of being a "professor of constitutional law".[1] Colorado Christian University does not have a constitutional law program.[1] The New York Times reports that Ellis has made appearances on Denver radio shows as a legal commentator, although the Times does not state when this was.[1] In 2018, Ellis left Colorado Christian University to work for evangelical James Dobson's Family Institute, as director of its public policy division.[1][7]
By 2018, Ellis was offering verbal defenses for Trump in media appearances, as well as alleging bias in the FBI.[1] By 2019, Ellis had often been featured by Fox News as a guest.[8]
Legal advisor for Trump campaign
In November 2019, Ellis was hired as a senior legal adviser for Donald Trump and the 2020 Donald Trump presidential campaign.[1][8] Axios reported that Trump had discussed being swayed by Ellis' media appearances.[8] The Trump campaign paid Ellis $3,900 in December 2019, then paid her almost $140,000 in October 2020 for legal consulting fees.[2] Ellis was paid $30,000 in November 2020 by the campaign.[9] In mid-November 2020, Ellis acknowledged her previous criticisms of Trump in 2015; stating that her past opinions were "completely wrong", because she "didn't know him" personally at the time, and she eventually "saw him keeping his promises".[6]
A Washington Post report narrated the following events: after all major news organizations projected Biden's victory on November 7, Trump's advisers and campaign staff were pessimistic about Trump's chances of prevailing.[10] Trump's main lawyers were particularly discouraged by a November 13 defeat of Trump allies in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Bognet v. Boockvar)[11] that decided that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue under the Constitution's electors clause in the Pennsylvania case.[10] Ellis and fellow lawyer Rudy Giuliani were far more optimistic, with Giuliani telling Trump on November 13 that Trump's advisers were lying to him about his prospects to win.[10] The Washington Post report described Ellis as the "protege" to Giuliani.[10]
On November 14, President Trump announced a legal team to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election results for his campaign, naming Ellis as a member of the team, along with Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and team leader Giuliani.[3] According to the Washington Post, after Trump's announcement, Ellis and Giuliani privately staged "a hostile takeover" of the Trump campaign from Trump's other advisers and campaign staff, resulting in Ellis, Giuliani and Powell gaining the foremost public roles regarding Trump's post-election efforts.[10] The team proceeded to file numerous lawsuits in several states over alleged vote harvesting, illegal votes, machine errors, vote dumps, and late-counted votes.[citation needed] On November 19, Ellis spoke at a press conference alongside Powell and Giuliani, with Giuliani stating that all three of them represent Trump and his campaign.[12] However, Powell soon parted ways with the team; Ellis and Giuliani stated on November 22 that Powell "is not a member of the Trump Legal Team", nor is she a personal lawyer for Trump.[12]
Ellis commented on the Trump campaign's Pennsylvania lawsuit, indicating that "media morons" should not laugh at Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani, because he "appears to have already established a great rapport with the judge".[13] After Republican pollster Frank Luntz mocked Ellis' comment, and the Trump campaign's Pennsylvania lawsuit was dismissed by the judge, Ellis accused Luntz of having "MicroPenis Syndrome".[13] Previously, Ellis had stated that she would not condone name-calling on social media.[14]
As of December 2020, the Trump campaign and its allies have initiated around 50 election-related lawsuits; however, Ellis had not joined any of these lawsuits on paper or in court.[1] This led Jeremy Peters and Alan Feuer of the New York Times to describe Ellis as mostly doing "public relations" work for the Trump campaign.[1]
Publications
- Ellis, Jenna (2015). The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution: A Guide for Christians to Understand America's Constitutional Crisis. Westbow Press. ISBN 978-1-5127-2274-1. OCLC 1147800122.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Peters, Jeremy W.; Feuer, Alan (December 3, 2020). "How Is Trump's Lawyer Jenna Ellis 'Elite Strike Force' Material?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Maremont, Mark; Ramey, Corinne; Ballhaus, Rebecca; Cho, Elisa (December 3, 2020). "How Jenna Ellis Rose From Traffic Court to Trump's Legal Team". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ a b Stracqualursi, Veronica (November 16, 2020). "Trump puts Giuliani in charge of post-election legal fight after series of losses". CNN. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ "Trump Legal Advisor Ellis Claims Dominion Voting Machines May Have 'Swung' Colorado Races". Colorado Times Recorder. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ "Turning Difficulty Into Ministry". Cedarville University. Archived from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kaczynski, Andrew; Steck, Em; McDermott, Nathan (November 19, 2020). "Trump's legal adviser Jenna Ellis in 2016 called him an 'idiot' and said his supporters didn't care about 'facts or logic'". CNN. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ Rabey, Steve (October 4, 2020). "Focus on the Family, James Dobson Family Institute among Colorado Springs ministries pushing to reelect Trump". Colorado Springs Gazette. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ a b c Swan, Jonathan (November 24, 2019). "Jenna Ellis is the latest Fox News guest to become a Trump adviser". Axios. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ Roston, Aram; Heath, Brad (December 5, 2020). "Trump campaign spent more than $2 million on election lawyers, including Jenna Ellis". Reuters. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Rucker, Philip; Parker, Ashley; Dawsey, Josh; Gardner, Amy (November 28, 2020). "20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump's quest to overturn the election". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ Fair, Matt (November 13, 2020). "3rd Circ. Won't Ax Pa. Mail-In Ballot Deadline Extension". Law360. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ a b Markay, Lachlan (November 22, 2020). "Trump Campaign Disavows Its Own Election-Conspiracy Lawyer". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ a b Mangan, Dan (November 23, 2020). "Trump fears Giuliani, other lawyers in Biden vote challenge are 'fools that are making him look bad'". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ Keilar, Brianna (November 23, 2020). "Trump's "Elite Strike Force" Legal Team Scapegoats Member". CNN. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
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