How Jenna Ellis’ 'crocodile tears' may come back to haunt her in a Philly courtroom

30 October 2023

When the Associated Press and other major media outlets called Pennsylvania for Democratic nominee Joe Biden four days after the 2020 presidential election, the streets of Center City Philadelphia erupted in major celebrations. Crowds of Philadelphians were chanting the chorus to Steam's 1969 hit "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Good Bye" along Broad Street, acting as though the Phillies had just won the World Series.

But Trump's attorneys, meanwhile, were claiming that Pennsylvania had been stolen from then-President Donald Trump. Election workers in the Keystone State were being threatened by angry Trump supporters who believed the Big Lie.

One of them was James Savage, a voting machines supervisor in Philly's Delaware County suburbs. Savage filed a civil lawsuit, and according to Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Chris Brennan, former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis' recent guilty plea may imperil her in Savage's case.

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On Tuesday, October 24 in an Atlanta courtroom, Ellis entered a "guilty" plea as part of a plea deal with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis. A tearful Ellis acknowledged that she was wrong to falsely claim, in 2020, that the election was being stolen from Trump. In exchange for being sentenced to probation instead of going to prison, Ellis must fully cooperate with Willis' office in their criminal case against Trump.

Brennan reports that for Ellis, the "downside" of her guilty plea means that "her tearful attempt at accepting responsibility — while blaming other lawyers for her downfall — may revive a civil lawsuit against her in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas."

"J. Conor Corcoran, Savage's attorney, told (the Philadelphia Inquirer) that Ellis talked her way back into the lawsuit Tuesday while crying 'crocodile tears' in an Atlanta courtroom," Brennan explains in a report published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 27. "He will ask a judge to reinstate her as a defendant. Ellis and (former New York City Mayor) Giuliani leveled their claims about Savage — among other debunked conspiracy theories — at a Republican hearing in Gettysburg three weeks after the 2020 election. Ellis held her phone to a microphone that day so legislators could hear Trump call in to pile on."

Brennan adds, "Ellis, on Tuesday, said she relied on 'lawyers with many more years of experience than I to provide me with true and reliable information' to share with media outlets and state legislators but didn't bother at the time to make sure those allegations 'were in fact true.' That was clearly a shot from Ellis at Giuliani, who is four decades older than his former propaganda protégé. Giuliani and Trump are among the defendants facing criminal charges in the Georgia case."

Two years after representing Trump, Ellis campaigned for far-right Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano — the 2022 Republican nominee and a major promotor of Trump's Big Lie. Mastriano lost by double digits to Democrat Josh Shapiro, now Pennsylvania's governor.

"On the campaign trail with Mastriano last year," Brennan notes, "Ellis defended her efforts to have Pennsylvania's nearly 7 million votes for president thrown out in 2020. Savage's lawsuit has been winding its way through Philly's courts. Another Common Pleas Court judge ruled, in August, that Trump was protected by presidential immunity for his phone-in comments at the Gettysburg hearing but also ruled, in July, that Savage's lawsuit against the former president could move forward, based on a 2022 letter Trump sent to Congress repeating those claims after he left office."

Read the Philadelphia Inquirer's full report at this link (subscription required).

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