Ellis Censured For Election Misrepresentations

From the web page of the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel

Jenna Ellis has been publicly censured through a stipulation to attorney discipline agreed to by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel and approved by the Presiding Disciplinary Judge. Through the stipulation, Ms. Ellis agreed that she violated Colo. RPC 8.4(c), which prohibits reckless, knowing, or intentional misrepresentations by attorneys. She violated this rule when, as counsel to the President Trump and the Trump campaign, she made a number of public statements about the November 2020 presidential election that were false. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge also has issued an opinion on this matter.

The public censure in this matter reinforces that even if engaged in political speech, there is a line attorneys cannot cross, particularly when they are speaking in a representative capacity.

The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel is not currently pursuing any other charges against Ms. Ellis.

The opinion noted that Ellis was not counsel of record in frivolous litigation and lists ten false statements

Respondent agrees she made the following ten misrepresentations:
 On November 13, 2020, Respondent claimed that “Hillary Clinton still has not conceded the 2016 election.”
 On November 20, 2020, Respondent appeared on Mornings with Maria on Fox Business and stated: “We have affidavits from witnesses, we have voter intimidation, we have the ballots that were manipulated, we have all kinds of statistics that show that this was a coordinated effort in all of these states to transfer votes either from Trump to Biden, to manipulate the ballots, to count them in secret . . .”
 On November 20, 2020, Respondent appeared on Spicer & Co. and stated, “with all those states [Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia] combined we know that the election was stolen from President Trump and we can prove that.”
 On November 21, 2020, Respondent stated on Twitter under her handle @JennaEllisEsq., “ . . . SECOND, we will present testimonial and other evidence IN COURT to show how this election was STOLEN!”
 On November 23, 2020, Respondent appeared on The Ari Melber Show on MSNBC and stated, “The election was stolen and Trump won by a landslide.”
 On November 30, 2020, Respondent appeared on Mornings with Maria on Fox Business and stated, “President Trump is right that there was widespread fraud in this election, we have at least six states that were corrupted, if not more, through their voting systems. . . We know that President Trump won in a landslide.” She also stated, “The outcome of this election is actually fraudulent it's wrong, and we understand than when we subtract all the illegal ballots, you can see that President Trump actually won in a landslide.”
 On December 3, 2020, Respondent appeared on Mornings with Maria on Fox Business and stated, “The outcome of this election is actually fraudulent it's wrong, and we understand than when we subtract all the illegal ballots, you can see that President Trump actually won in a landslide.”
 On December 5, 2020, Respondent appeared on Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox News and stated, "We have over 500,000 votes [in Arizona] that were cast illegally . . .”
 On December 15, 2020, Respondent appeared on Greg Kelly Reports on Newsmax and stated, “The proper and true victor, which is Donald Trump . . .”
 On December 22, 2020, Respondent stated on Twitter, through her handle @JennaEllisEsq, “I spent an hour with @DanCaplis for an in-depth discussion about President @realDonaldTrump's fight for election integrity, the overwhelming evidence proving this was stolen, and why fact-finding and truth—not politics—matters!”

Respondent made these misrepresentations on Twitter and on various television programs, including Fox Business, MSNBC, Fox News, and Newsmax.

The opinion states that she acted with "at least a reckless" state of mind.(Mike Frisch)