Ex-Trump lawyer to cooperate in Arizona fake electors case, charges to be dropped
The cooperation agreement signed by Ellis in the Arizona case requires her to provide truthful information to the Attorney General’s Office and testify honestly in proceedings in any state or federal court. Prosecutors can withdraw from the deal and refile charges if Ellis violates the agreement.
Prosecutors have already asked a court to dismiss the Arizona charges against Ellis. It was not immediately clear if a judge had yet approved the request.
Associated Press left messages with Ellis’ lawyer, Matthew Brown, after the agreement was announced on Monday.
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While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors say Ellis made false claims of widespread election fraud in the state and six others, encouraged the Arizona Legislature to change the outcome of the election and encouraged Mike Pence, vice-president at the time, to accept Arizona’s fake elector votes.
The indictment said Ellis, Giuliani and other associates were at a meeting at the Arizona Legislature on December 1, 2020, with then-House Speaker Rusty Bowers and other Republicans when Giuliani and his team asked the speaker to hold a committee hearing on the election.
When Bowers asked for proof of election fraud, Giuliani said he had proof but Ellis had advised that it was left back at a hotel room, the indictment said. No proof was provided to Bowers.
Ellis is also barred from practising law in Colorado for three years after her guilty plea in Georgia.
Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.
Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment.
The 11 people who claimed to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and asserting that Trump carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.