"In two courtrooms 800 miles apart on Tuesday, a stark reality for former President Donald Trump became clearer than ever," Politico reported: "If Trump is taken down in his myriad criminal and civil cases, it will likely be at the hands of his own former lawyers."
On Tuesday morning, Jenna Ellis became the fourth co-defendant in Trump's Georgia election interference case — and the third former Trump-affiliated lawyer — to plead guilty to lesser crimes in return for probation, financial penalties and a promise to testify truthfully against any co-defendants if called to do so by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
"If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these postelection challenges," a tearful Ellis told Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee. Ellis, 38, was a vocal member of what she called Trump's legal "elite strike force team" deployed to prove the 2020 election was stolen, alongside Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Powell reached a plea deal in Fulton County on Thursday, and lawyer Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty Friday. Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty on Sept. 29.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified against his glowering former boss in a civil fraud trial in New York City on Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday night, ABC News reported that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had received immunity from special counsel Jack Smith and was giving damaging sworn testimony against Trump in his federal election interference case.
With Ellis' plea deal, "nearly every high-level attorney who worked with Trump" between the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection "has provided voluminous testimony to congressional investigators or prosecutors," Politico noted.
Trump's current lawyers "have been preparing for a potential onslaught of co-defendants flipping on him" since the summer, digging up dirt on those deemed most likely to reach plea deals, Rolling Stone reported Tuesday night. But Trump's legal team is also grappling with "chronic distrust and petty feuds in their own ranks," reaching a point "where some of them have privately spread rumors or speculation this year that other Trump attorneys are secretly cooperating with federal or Fulton County prosecutors." Time will tell, but Ellis isn't expected to be the last co-conspirator to flip.
-
11 extra-special holiday gifts for everyone on your listThe Week Recommends Jingle their bells with the right present
-
‘Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right’ by Laura K. Field and ‘The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare’ by Daniel SwiftFeature An insider’s POV on the GOP and the untold story of Shakespeare’s first theater
-
How to shop smarter with a grocery budgetThe Explainer No more pushing your cart down the aisles on autopilot
-
The Trump administration says it deports dangerous criminals. ICE data tells a different story.IN THE SPOTLIGHT Arrest data points to an inconvenient truth for the White House’s ongoing deportation agenda
-
Trump unveils $12B bailout for tariff-hit farmersSpeed Read The president continues to insist that his tariff policy is working
-
Trump: Losing energy and supportFeature Polls show that only one of his major initiatives—securing the border—enjoys broad public support
-
Is Trump in a bubble?Today’s Big Question GOP allies worry he is not hearing voters
-
Trump’s Comey case dealt new setbackspeed read A federal judge ruled that key evidence could not be used in an effort to reindict former FBI Director James Comey
-
Moscow cheers Trump’s new ‘America First’ strategyspeed read The president’s national security strategy seeks ‘strategic stability’ with Russia
-
Trump’s poll collapse: can he stop the slide?Talking Point President who promised to ease cost-of-living has found that US economic woes can’t be solved ‘via executive fiat’
-
‘These accounts clearly are designed as a capitalist alternative’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
