Donald Trump 2020 Election Trial: Ex-POTUS Gets More Headache After Mark Meadows Flip, Jenna Ellis Guilty Plea
Donald Trump's penchant for not paying his lawyers has now come back to bite him as his former election lawyer, Jenna Ellis, has flipped and took a plea deal to plead guilty in the Georgia election trial. Meanwhile, Trump's own Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, has also flipped, taking an immunity deal with Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Ellis is now the fourth Trump co-defendant to flip on the Georgia election case, while Meadows is perhaps the biggest name to turn on Trump so far as he was his chief of staff during the January 6 capitol insurrection and allegedly helped plan the events of that fateful day. With the Ellis and Meadows flips, four of Trump's inner circle may be testifying against him in Georgia and Washington, DC.
ABC News reported that the Trump White House Chief of Staff has already spoken with special counsel Jack Smith's team at least three times this year alone. Before a federal grand jury, Jack Smith granted Meadows immunity to testify under oath. This means that Smith may have gotten the biggest flip so far in all of Trump's criminal cases.
Sources stated that Meadows informed Smith's team that he had warned the former president repeatedly after the 2020 elections that his claims of widespread voter fraud were baseless.
He also told the special counsel's investigators that "Trump was being 'dishonest' with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on November 3, 2020, before final results were in."
Meadows has been one of the former president's closest and highest-ranking aides while he was still president. Trump even called him a "special friend" and "a great chief of staff -- as good as it gets," making his flip to take an immunity deal is much worse news for Trump than any of the flips.
Jenna Ellis Also Turns After Not Being Paid by Donald Trump
Much like other Georgia flips, Jenna Ellis was one of the key figures who helped spread misinformation about the 2020 election. She had been going on social media and right-wing media to help spread fake news but has since changed her tune after Trump refused to pay her. Now, she will testify against him.
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According to the Associated Press, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. Much like the others who flipped, she is expected to only get a slap on the wrist in exchange for their testimonies against Donald Trump.
Ellis had been very vocal about her support for Trump but has since soured on her former client and promised she would not vote for him, citing his "malignant, narcissistic tendency to simply say that he's never done anything wrong."
After Jenna Ellis and Mark Meadows Flips, Spotlight Now on Rudy Giuliani
While Meadows may perhaps be the biggest flip so far, and Jenna Ellis further adds more pressure against Trump, all eyes are now on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who once served as Trump's attorney. Like Ellis, Trump has not paid him yet, and he refused to pay the former mayor's legal fees.
As MSNBC noted, her guilty plea directly implicates him as they worked together on trying to overturn the election results in Georgia. This presents a choice for Giuliani, and that would be to either stay loyal to Trump and go to jail or flip and maybe only get a slap on the wrist like the others.
READ MORE: Donald Trump Co-Defendant Jenna Ellis Turns On Ex-POTUS, Calls Him a 'Malignant Narcissist'
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Rick Martin
WATCH: Mark Meadows granted immunity in federal election case: Sources - ABC News