As the guilty pleas pile up in Georgia, the question arises: Which remaining defendants are now facing even greater legal peril? Jenna Ellis’ fresh plea deal spotlights a big one of the 15 left: Rudy Giuliani.
Indeed, the former lawman turned Trump stooge is listed alongside Ellis throughout the racketeering indictment, and her guilty plea Tuesday directly implicates him. That is, she pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements and writings, in connection with alleged efforts by Giuliani and fellow Trump lawyer/co-defendant Ray Smith to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia (both of whom have pleaded not guilty).
Indeed, the former lawman turned Trump stooge is listed alongside Ellis throughout the racketeering indictment, and her guilty plea Tuesday directly implicates him.
Like Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, who both pleaded guilty last week, Ellis is a lawyer who got a no-jail deal from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office, which doesn’t appear to be standing in the way of these defendants’ attempts to keep practicing law.
It’s a relatively sweet arrangement that Giuliani and any other of the remaining defendants could attack on cross-examination at trial. But Ellis, who made a tearful statement in court Tuesday, is seemingly prepared to implicate Giuliani and others if called to the stand, having cast herself as an ingenue who relied on more-experienced colleagues in Trump world who should have known better.
One wonders, though: Would a jury look at Giuliani and others in the MAGA menagerie and think they could have been trusted?
We’re a bit far off from that scenario. At any rate, given how much they worked together during the ill-fated 2020 campaign, Giuliani may not relish the prospect of Ellis testifying against him, however powerful the cross-examination of her would be. And to be sure, as we examined last month, the Georgia prosecution is just one of Giuliani’s pending legal entanglements, which are diverse and span the criminal and civil realms. As I’ve noted, it’s always dangerous to wonder what he’s thinking. But with Ellis’ plea, things probably aren’t going great in the mind of “America’s mayor.” Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Blog newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump prosecutions and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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