Jenna Ellis smiled in her mugshot. The former Trump attorney who was indicted alongside him and 17 others over an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results even made the Fulton County booking photo her profile picture on Twitter. “Those who mock me, my former client, and my God want to see me break and they aren’t going to get that satisfaction,” she told The New York Times in August.

On Tuesday, through tears, Jenna Ellis accepted a plea deal from Georgia prosecutors. Five years probation and some community service in exchange for her truthful testimony against her co-defendants. While Ellis’ role in the upcoming trial remains an open-ended question, something else looms over her decision to flip on her former allies: the $216,431 crowdsourced by friends and Trump supporters to fund her legal defense.

  • SpaceBar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    MAGA diehards only like to see others get screwed over. When they get screwed over, the tears start to flow.

    Jenna Ellis is no Saint either. Here’s to hoping she’s disbarred right after she’s ostracized by everyone in her GOP party.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ellis had “raised $216,431 on GiveSendGo by promising the American people she would fight for the truth,”

    If she now testifies properly, she has fulfilled her word. Fine with me.

    “Thank you, gullible idiots!” – Jenna Ellis

  • ohmyiv@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The funniest thing about this is that a bunch of grifters convinced those idiots to give her money. Suckers.

    If I didn’t have any decency, I’d be a billionaire from how easy it is to get money from conservative voters. Pastors and politicians have been doing it to them for years. All anyone has to do is spout a bunch of bible shit and claim conservative. If anyone gets busted, they just have to cry, beg forgiveness, blame the devil, and say it was a liberal setup and they’d get more money. Easy pickings from people who are told they should vote against their own education and actually do it.

  • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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    1 year ago

    She was smiling in the mugshot and talking shit because she didn’t have a good lawyer telling her how fucked she was. They should have gotten her less money and a worse lawyer.

  • acceptable_pumpkin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    How are all these people getting such ridiculously light punishments? Good that they’re going to “flip”, but give them 5 years in prison vs 20 for cooperating.

    • hperrin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You gotta give them a real good incentive for them to turn against the guy who currently controls the entire GOP. Also, they’re small fries. Trump is the one that needs at least 20 years.

      • the_inebriati@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It’s also a very culty behaviour to hate apostates even more than nonbelievers.

        If the extremist freaks are going to target anyone with violence, it’s going to be the perceived “traitors” who “stabbed them in the back”.

  • EpicFailGuy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I predict,

    The easiest to win and fastest class-action lawsuit in the history of the courts

    • JonEFive@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Doubtful. The money is likely considered a gift, so there’s no implied contract where the donors would get anything in return.

      One could argue fraud, but I think that would have to come with intent. A reasonable person could conclude that her intent when she was collecting the money was to prepare for a long and difficult legal battle which appeared to be a highly likely situation.

      I don’t believe the donors are given any expectation that they would receive back money that was not used. The only place that might be conveyed would be the Terms of Service on whatever site she used if she used something like gofundme. If the terms say that money must be returned under certain circumstances, then I could see legitimate legal standing. But if she set up her own website where she could put her own fine print in? They’re out of luck.

      The lesson is to be more judicious with your money. If you don’t like what someone does with your money after you give it to them, then make better decisions about who you give your money to.

    • UnspecificGravity@lemmings.world
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      1 year ago

      How? She collected money for her legal defense and she undoubtedly spent it on exactly that in order to negotiate this deal. If people thought that donating to her was going to force her to lie on Trump’s behalf then they are fucking morons who get “defrauded” every time they walk out their door because they are too stupid to manage any expenses.

  • EpicFailGuy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Very good point, this is the “mens rea” that legal eagle is always talking about in his criminal case videos,

    but; couldn’t this be pursued as a civil case? where the burden of proof is much lesser?

    I guess a donation counts as a gift anyways so there’s no such thing as “defrauding donors”

    The real lesson is … we need to invest in education teach critical thinking instead of an agenda

      • UnspecificGravity@lemmings.world
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        How could it be fraud? She collected money for HER legal defense, not to support going to jail on behalf of Trump. If people thought that donating to her was paying for her to lie for Trump then they are fucking stupid. She undoubtedly has and/or will incur this much in legal costs over the course of this.

      • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Not a lawyer

        Didn’t she raise funding on the premise of her legal costs? If she wasn’t promising an outcome, then it shouldn’t bind her options here. I just don’t know enough about her fundraising campaign to make a clear call.

        EDIT: Just read the other comments, sorry to be repeating what’s already been said