Doug Mastriano hired former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis for his campaign for Pa. governor
The former Trump lawyer who campaigned for the Republican nominee for governor during the primary is joining his campaign as a senior legal advisor.
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Doug Mastriano’s campaign said Monday that he has hired a lawyer who helped spearhead former President Donald Trump’s postelection litigation in 2020 to assist his bid for Pennsylvania governor.
Mastriano, a Republican state senator, named Jenna Ellis senior legal adviser to his campaign. Ellis worked on unsuccessful lawsuits with Rudy Giuliani and others to challenge the 2020 election results in key swing states, including Pennsylvania.
She has campaigned with Mastriano for months, but Monday’s announcement means Ellis now has a formal job with the campaign. It also comes as the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol brings renewed scrutiny to the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the election.
Ellis joined Giuliani at a November 2020 legislative gathering in Gettysburg led by Mastriano, during which they and others aired grievances about the election.
» READ MORE: What we know about Mastriano’s attempts to overturn Trump’s 2020 Pa. election loss
The Justice Department is investigating the submission of pro-Trump electors in states won by Joe Biden. A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas seeking information about the involvement of Trump lawyers, including Ellis, in that effort, the New York Times reported last month.
“Jenna Ellis was the first to endorse us and was a champion for our campaign during the Primary Election,” Mastriano, a leader of the election denial movement in Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “The talent, experience, and legal expertise Jenna brings will be an important factor in helping us defeat Josh Shapiro and the extreme Democrat agenda in November.”
Ellis called the race between Mastriano and Democrat Josh Shapiro, the state attorney general, “the most important in the country.”
“As Governor, Doug Mastriano will reinstate personal and economic freedom in Pennsylvania, and he’ll restore integrity to our elections,” she said in a statement. “I’m honored to do whatever I can to help him make that happen.”
Ellis is not licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, according to a state database. An ethics complaint filed against her in Colorado by a bipartisan group called States United Democracy Center says that is the only state in which she appears to be licensed to practice law.