Judge orders Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis to testify in Georgia election probe
- Trump’s legal advisor Jenna Ellis was ordered to testify if the Georgia probe.
- Ellis worked as Trump’ campaign attorney during and after the 2020 elections.
- Rudy Giuliani and Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham have also been ordered to testify in the probe.
A Colorado judge on Tuesday ordered former President Donald Trump’s campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis to testify before the Fulton County, Georgia special grand jury investigating whether Trump and his associates tried to interfere in the 2020 elections.
The order from Judge Gregory Lammons in Fort Collins, Colorado, came after he held a hearing on the Fulton County special grand jury’s request to have Ellis travel to Georgia and testify. The special grand jury issued a subpoena to compel Ellis to testify on August 25, according to CNN.
Will Wooten, a lawyer in the Fulton County district attorney’s office, said during the hearing that Ellis’s testimony was “material” and necessary” to the special grand jury. He added that the grand jury wanted Ellis to testify on her involvement in pushing election fraud claims and on legal memos she allegedly wrote to Mike Pence with instructions on how the then-vice president could overturn the 2020 election results.
Ellis’s attorney Michael Melito pushed back on Wooten’s evidence on Ellis’s role in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Lammons ended the hearing by saying that this is about “one witness in this state testifying in another state” and that Ellis testifying before the grand jury did not pose an “undue burden” on her, according to CNN.
Ellis’ testimony could be critical to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s investigation. Her probe has also expanded to include examining an alleged scheme to send a fake slate of electors to Georgia’s state Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election results.
Last month, Willis asked the special grand jury to seek the testimony of several of Trump’s advisers, including Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The former New York mayor is expected to testify on Wednesday before the special grand jury after he was notified that he was a “target” in the Georgia probe. Legal experts told Insider that Trump and others potentially violated three Georgia state laws, including racketeering, election fraud solicitation, and interference with the performance of election duties.