Jenna Ellis

Ellis was subpoenaed in January 2022 to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. When called before the committee, she pleaded the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

In April 2022, Ellis criticized the effort to repeal the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, calling it "misguided" and arguing that Disney has the "right to speak" and take a position on whether to support or oppose legislation "without government consequences."

In June 2022, Doug Mastriano appointed Ellis his senior legal adviser in his campaign for governor of Pennsylvania. At one of Mastriano's campaign events in Erie, Ellis called Mastriano the "Donald Trump of Pennsylvania". In October 2022, Ellis posted on Twitter that Mastriano's opponent "Josh Shapiro is at best a secular Jew in the same way Joe Biden is a secular Catholic — both are extremists for gender transition surgeries on minors and no limits on abortion. Doug Mastriano is for wholesome family values and freedom."

Following the Cluq Q shooting in November 2022, Ellis claimed that the shooting was being exploited to present a narrative where "Christians hate homosexual and transgender individuals and somehow that 'hate' led to the shooting", before going on to suggest that there was "no evidence at all" that the five people killed at Club Q were Christians and thus, "assuming that [...] they had not accepted the truth of the gospel of Christ and affirmed Jesus Christ as the lord of their life, they are now reaping the consequences of having eternal damnation [...] Instead of just the tragedy of what happened to the body, we need to be talking about what happened to the soul and the fact that they are now in eternal separation from our lord and savior Jesus Christ." She later rejected any claims of being hateful or judgemental towards the victims, but continued to insist on her assumption that they were not Christians and so were "eternally separated from Christ" as a result.

In May 2022, the States United Democracy Center filed a complaint with the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel where it alleged that Ellis had committed multiple violations of professional rules during her work for the Trump legal team. In December, it was reported that the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel was investigating Ellis in relation to the complaint.

Ellis was fired as deputy district attorney after around six months, which she attributed to her insistence that she would not prosecute a case she thought was unethical. Asked by The Wall Street Journal, the Weld County District Attorney's office declined to comment on the matter. The Colorado Sun published government records in December 2020 indicating Ellis had been fired for "mistakes", including a failure to "adhere" to Colorado's Victim Rights Act. The mistakes were attributed to "deficiencies in her education and experience", ensuring that she retained unemployment benefits despite the firing, stated the records. But the report also stated, "The number of cases in which (Ellis) committed an irreparable, egregious act was not significant compared to the total number of cases she processed. … There are insufficient facts (Ellis) was not performing the duties to the best of her ability." Thus Ellis was eligible for unemployment benefit. The 2020 Trump campaign responded to The Colorado Sun on Ellis' behalf, stating that this was a "nonstory". Another profile on a Christian site claims that Ellis won a wrongful termination appeal.

In 2020, Ellis became the special counsel for the Thomas More Society, a conservative group that has filed 2020 election-related lawsuits via the Amistad Project organization. The Amistad Project cited Ellis as one of their "Leadership and Advisory Board" members. Ellis and the Thomas More Society have stated that Ellis is not working for Amistad. Ellis also stated that Amistad had cited her as a board member without her approval.

On November 14, Trump announced a legal team to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election results for his campaign, naming Ellis as a member of the team, along with Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and team leader Giuliani. According to The Washington Post, after Trump's announcement, Ellis and Giuliani privately staged "a hostile takeover" of the Trump campaign from Trump's other advisers and campaign staff, resulting in Ellis, Giuliani and Powell gaining the foremost public roles regarding Trump's post-election efforts. On November 19, Ellis spoke at a press conference alongside Powell and Giuliani, with Giuliani stating that all three of them represent Trump and his campaign, and Ellis declaring that they were "an elite strike force team" assisting Trump. However, Powell soon left the team; Ellis and Giuliani stated on November 22 that Powell "is not a member of the Trump Legal Team", nor is she a personal lawyer for Trump.

On November 23, even after the General Services Administration recognized Joe Biden as the apparent winner of the 2020 election, Ellis baselessly claimed that the "election was stolen and President Trump won by a landslide".

On December 1, 2020, the Trump administration's Attorney General, William Barr, stated that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security had investigated "systemic fraud", whether "machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results", and that "so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that". On whether fraud had cost Trump the election, Barr said he had not seen evidence of that yet. Ellis and Giuliani reacted by accusing the Department of Justice of failing to investigate fraud.

On December 4, Ellis and Giuliani met state lawmakers in Georgia, making efforts to overturn the 2020 election result.

On December 8, 2020, Axios reported that Ellis had told associates that she tested positive for COVID-19. ABC News and CNN corroborated the story. However, Ellis refused to confirm the story to Axios. Giuliani confirmed Ellis' diagnosis later that day. Ellis had not worn a mask at a December 2 meeting with Michigan lawmakers and at a December 4 White House party, while on December 6, it was reported that Giuliani himself had tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, in late November, Ellis and Giuliani ignored Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to quarantine themselves despite coming into close contact with a known infected COVID-19 case: Boris Epshteyn, a Trump campaign adviser.

On New Year's Eve 2020, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent a memo drafted by Ellis to a top Pence aide containing a detailed plan to overturn the election results. The plan entailed Pence returning the electoral results to six battleground states on January 6, with a deadline of January 15 for the states to return them. If any state did not return their electoral slate by that date, neither Trump nor Biden would hold a majority, so the election would be thrown to the House for a vote to determine the winner. Per the Constitution, in such a scenario the vote would be conducted based on state delegations made up of their respective House members with each state having one vote. With Republicans holding 26 of 50, that would presumably give Trump the victory.

In November 2019, Ellis was hired as a senior legal adviser for Trump and his 2020 re-election campaign. Axios reported that Trump had discussed being swayed by Ellis' media appearances. The Trump campaign paid Ellis $3,900 in December 2019, then paid her almost $140,000 in October 2020 for legal consulting fees. Ellis was paid $30,000 in November 2020 by the campaign. In mid-November 2020, Ellis acknowledged her previous criticisms of Trump in 2015; stating that her past opinions were "completely wrong", because she "didn't know him" personally at the time, and she eventually "saw him keeping his promises".

By late 2018, Ellis was defending Trump in cable news appearances, as well as alleging bias in the FBI, presenting herself as a "constitutional law attorney". By 2019, Ellis had often been featured by Fox News as a guest.

In 2017, Ellis became a writer for the Washington Examiner, where she falsely claimed to have a history of being a "professor of constitutional law". Colorado Christian University does not have a constitutional law program. The New York Times reports that Ellis has made appearances on Denver radio shows as a legal commentator, although the Times does not state when this was. In 2018, Ellis left Colorado Christian University to work for the James Dobson Family Institute [Wikidata], as director of its public policy division, the Dobson Policy Center [Wikidata].

In March 2016, Ellis criticized Trump's supporters, stating that they "DON'T CARE about facts or logic. They aren't seeking truth", but are "narcissists"; that supporters ignored how Trump was an "unethical, corrupt, lying, criminal, dirtbag"; that arguments in support of Trump are "ridiculously illogical, inconsistent, and blatantly stupid", and that Trump "cannot be trusted to be consistent or accurate in anything".

After Trump became the Republican nominee for president, Ellis expressed support for him in the 2016 general election.

Ellis was a critic of Donald Trump and his supporters in 2015 and early 2016 until he became the 2016 Republican nominee for president, at which point Ellis began voicing support, including in media appearances. Ellis was hired by Trump in November 2019 as a senior legal adviser. From November 2020 to January 2021, Ellis was a member of what she characterized as an "elite strike force team" that made efforts to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. She made unsubstantiated claims that Trump was the actual winner of the election and drafted two memos falsely asserting vice president Mike Pence could change the results.

In 2015, Ellis became an affiliate faculty member of Colorado Christian University, and later an assistant professor of legal studies, until her departure in 2018. Ellis taught political science and pre-law to undergraduates. The university does not have a law school.

Ellis self-published a book, The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution: A Guide for Christians to Understand America's Constitutional Crisis, in 2015. She argued that the Constitution of the United States must only be interpreted according to the Bible. Her view of the Supreme Court of the United States legalizing same-sex marriage, in Obergefell v. Hodges, was that it would lead to polygamy and pedophilia becoming accepted. In 2016, Ellis described homosexuals as "sinners" whose "conduct is vile and abominable". Robert Cochran Jr., an expert in Christian law, described Ellis' views as "further to the right" than most conservative Christian legal scholars.

In 2015 and early 2016, while Donald Trump was vying to become the Republican nominee for president, Ellis was a stern critic. In 2015, Ellis wrote on Facebook that Trump was "without love", "treacherous", "abusive", and "unholy". In February 2016, Ellis made various comments on Trump, such as her belief that he wanted to "destroy American democracy", was "one of the greatest threats to our liberty", "cannot handle criticism", and was not a real Christian, because he could not repent. To stop Trump from becoming the nominee, Ellis proposed that the Republican Party set up a brokered convention.

In 2013, Ellis worked for IE Discovery in one lawsuit involving a contract dispute. IE Discovery is a company that assists the U.S. Department of State in legal discovery matters. Ellis later claimed to have been an "attorney for the U.S. Department of State", though no records exist of her as a State Department employee.

From 2012 to 2013, Ellis served as deputy district attorney in Weld County, Colorado. According to the Weld County District Attorney's office, Ellis worked on misdemeanor cases, including those relating to traffic. Her experience as a prosecutor also covered crimes such as assault and theft in state courts.

With the end of her public sector stint, Ellis went into private practice at law firms based in Northern Colorado. She defended clients in state courts in matters pertaining to assault, domestic abuse, prostitution, and theft. According to Ellis, she also worked in cases regarding immigration and tenancy. Records showed that Ellis took part in approximately 30 state court cases which began from 2012 or 2016, including one state appeals court case; this was described as a 'sparse record' by another Colorado lawyer interviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Court records do not show Ellis having taken part in election law cases, federal judiciary cases, or any cases in the United States district courts or courts of appeals before December 2020.

Ellis was homeschooled by her parents. In 2003, she enrolled at Cedarville University, then transferred to Colorado State University in order to study journalism. In 2011, she received a J.D. degree from the University of Richmond School of Law.

Jenna Lynn Ellis (born November 1, 1984) is a conservative lawyer known for her work as a member of Donald Trump's legal team. She is a former deputy district attorney in Weld County, Colorado and a former assistant professor of legal studies at Colorado Christian University. As a private lawyer, she has litigated cases in state courts. In 2015, she self-published The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution, a book arguing that the Constitution of the United States can only be interpreted in accordance with the Bible. Since 2018, Ellis has presented herself as a "constitutional law attorney" during cable news appearances, though The New York Times reported her background did not reflect such expertise and The Wall Street Journal reported she had no history in any federal cases.