As the days go on, more Donald Trump-aligned people have either pleaded guilty or asked for immunity regarding their involvement in overturning the 2020 presidential election.
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty to a felony charge regarding her involvement in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia. This makes Ellis the fourth defendant in the Georgia lawsuit to plead guilty.
The Georgia election case charged former President Trump and 17 other people for violating an anti-racketeering law, which has been Fulton Count District Attorney Fani Willis’s method of prosecuting this situation. The law targeted mobs and their leaders, but it is also broad enough to have other uses.
Ellis pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements and writings. This included aiding in statements made by Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Ray Smith, who claimed that “tens of thousands of minors, felons and dead people voted in Georgia’s 2020 election,” a claim that was found to be baseless.
These guilty pleas in Georgia were gained with the promise that Ellis and the others would provide honest testimony at future hearings and trials in compensation for multiple years of probation, thousands of dollars in fines and a written letter of apology. These punishments are relatively light, considering violating the anti-racketeering law in Georgia is a felony that could result in five to 20 years of prison time along with a minimum $25,000 fine.
The goal of these plea deals is getting truthful testimony to make it easier to secure guilty verdicts on targets who are more important to the election denials and interference, such as Trump.
Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, was granted immunity over his involvement with the promise that Meadows would testify under oath.
Meadows has already spoken to Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team, saying that he told Trump that the allegations of voter fraud were baseless. This admission to Trump is very different from what we saw publicly from Meadows, as he was a strong supporter of Trump and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
These guilty pleas in Georgia, along with Meadows seeking immunity, are worrying signs for Trump and anyone being indicted that are still loyal to him. As more people close to Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election offer to testify about their involvement and knowledge to protect themselves, this could result in a domino effect that encourages the remaining Trump loyal holdouts to offer their testimony in exchange for immunity or lighter sentences.
The more people are willing to testify against Trump in the Georgia anti-racketeering case and the election interference case, the harder it will be for Trump to defend himself. This could put a strain on Trump’s financial physical ability to fight the other court cases he’s involved in.
We will see what this means for Trump and the rest of those involved in the Georgia case in the coming weeks.
