Why former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis’ ‘crocodile tears’ may soon land her back in a Philly court room

Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who forged a career in politics and punditry by helping former President Donald Trump push lies about the 2020 election, saw it all come crashing down in Georgia Tuesday.

The upshot: Her guilty plea to a felony charge for trying to overturn the election in that state means she won’t see any jail time.

The downside: Her tearful attempt at accepting responsibility — while blaming other lawyers for her downfall — may revive a civil lawsuit against her in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas.

James Savage, a Delaware County voting machine supervisor, sued Ellis, Trump, his presidential campaign, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and two local poll watchers in 2021, saying their unsubstantiated claims that he had tampered with the 2020 vote made him a target of hatred, ridicule, and physical threats.

A Common Pleas Court judge last year dismissed Ellis from that lawsuit but allowed the rest of Savage’s claims to move forward.

J. Conor Corcoran, Savage’s attorney, told Clout that Ellis talked her way back into the lawsuit Tuesday while crying “crocodile tears” in an Atlanta courtroom. He will ask a judge to reinstate her as a defendant.

Ellis and Giuliani leveled their claims about Savage — among other debunked conspiracy theories — at a Republican hearing in Gettysburg three weeks after the 2020 election. Ellis held her phone to a microphone that day so legislators could hear Trump call in to pile on.

Ellis on Tuesday said she relied on “lawyers with many more years of experience than I to provide me with true and reliable information” to share with media outlets and state legislators but didn’t bother at the time to make sure those allegations “were in fact true.”

That was clearly a shot from Ellis at Giuliani, who is four decades older than his former propaganda protégé. Giuliani and Trump are among the defendants facing criminal charges in the Georgia case.

A Giuliani spokesperson looked past Ellis when Clout came calling, vowing that the former mayor would not take a plea deal and complaining that “every single prosecutor in this case is a partisan Democrat focused on their own partisan political ambitions and keeping President Donald Trump out of the White House.”

Ellis, who consulted last year on State Sen. Doug Mastriano’s failed bid for governor, did not respond to Clout’s hails about this.

On the campaign trail with Mastriano last year, Ellis defended her efforts to have Pennsylvania’s nearly 7 million votes for president thrown out in 2020.

Savage’s lawsuit has been winding its way through Philly’s courts.

Another Common Pleas Court judge ruled in August that Trump was protected by presidential immunity for his phone-in comments at the Gettysburg hearing but also ruled in July that Savage’s lawsuit against the former president could move forward, based on a 2022 letter Trump sent to Congress repeating those claims after he left office.

Trump also faces two federal indictments, one for allegedly keeping classified documents after the government tried to recover them, the other for his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

And Trump faces criminal charges in New York for allegedly paying a porn star hush money during his 2016 campaign to keep quiet an affair.

Three decades on local television can be an excellent asset when seeking public office, Janelle Stelson learned last week as a campaign poll showed her with a significant early lead in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District.

Stelson, who left her news anchor job at NBC affiliate WGAL in Lancaster last month and entered the race Oct. 4, holds a 13-point lead — 33% to 20% — over her closest primary competitor, Harrisburg city council member Shamaine Daniels.

Daniels lost her 2022 bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican now seeking a seventh term.

A Public Policy Polling survey of 547 likely Democratic voters, conducted during two days last week, found that 38% are still undecided in the crowded primary. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 4.2%.

Mike O’Brien, a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who announced his run last month, and Rick Coplen, who lost the 2022 primary to Daniels, were at 3% in the poll, along with former Harrisburg public radio executive Blake Lynch, who entered the primary Tuesday.

John Broadhurst, an international business consultant who entered the primary last week, was not mentioned in the poll.

Perry, a hard-right conservative who tried to challenge all of Pennsylvania’s presidential votes in 2020, is seen as a key Democratic target in a swing district next year. The 10th District includes Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York Counties

Stelson is not the only one polling in the district.

Welcome PAC, a Democratic centrist organization, has launched the Republicans Against Perry project. That group, also using Public Policy Polling, shared with Clout this week a survey showing Perry upside down in his district, with 49% disapproving of his job performance, 34% approving and 17% unsure.

That survey of 587 registered voters in the district — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — put Perry’s support at 46% while an unnamed Democratic opponent brought in 44%, with 11% unsure who they would vote for. The survey’s margin of error was +/- 4%.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.