Attorney Jenna Ellis told Georgia prosecutors that one of former President Donald Trump’s top advisers told her after the 2020 election that “the boss is not going away under any circumstances,” according to reports.
Ellis, 39, turned Trump, 77, last month in the Fulton County, Ga., election fraud case, agreed to cooperate with District Attorney Fani Willis’ office and pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in exchange for no time prison.
In a meeting with Georgia prosecutors on Oct. 23, a former Trump loyalist told the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office that he was informed at the White House Christmas Party — weeks after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden — that the former president would refuse to leave. office despite having lost litigation challenging the election results, according to ABC News.
“The boss will not leave under any circumstances. We’re just going to stay in power,” Trump aide Dan Scavino allegedly told Ellis about the 45th president – which was later relayed to Willis’ team just a day before he pleaded guilty.
Jenna Ellis reacts with her attorney after reading a guilty plea to one count of felony aiding and abetting false statements and writings in Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom on Oct. 24. 2023.POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Ellis noted that Scavino, the former White House deputy chief of staff, made the remarks “in an excited tone” after he apologized to her for the legal defeats Trump suffered during the election campaign, including losing at the Supreme Court, according to the outlet.
“‘Well, it doesn’t work very well, you know?'” Ellis recounted responding to Scavino. “And he said, ‘We don’t care.'”
The attorney also stated that he and Scavino were drinking during the event but he does not believe it affected his memory of the event or Scavino’s thinking.
Ellis with former President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. White House
During the offer session, Ellis explained that Scavino’s statement “indicates to me that he’s serious and it’s an extension of something he’s talked about with the boss.”
Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who accepted a plea deal in the case on Oct. 19, also held proffer interviews with Georgia prosecutors and told them that Trump would frequently contact him despite the Trump campaign’s attempts to publicly distance himself from him. November 2020, according to ABC News.
Trump “always wants to know where he is in terms of looking for fraud that will change the outcome of the election,” he told the Fulton County DA’s team.
Powell recalled that Trump considered naming his special counsel to investigate his alleged election fraud.
Ellis reads a statement after pleading guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee’s courtroom in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 24, 2023. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“In fact, he looked up [White House Counsel Pat] Cipollone three different times and said, ‘Do I have the authority to name his special counsel?’ and Cipollone said, ‘Yes, you do,'” Powell said during the bidding session.
“And then someone said, ‘Well, he doesn’t have a security clearance,'” he added. “So he saw Cipollone and he said, ‘Do I have the authority to give him security clearance?’ and Cipollone said, ‘Yes, you do.’ And then about the third time we went through that scenario, Cipollone, I think, said, ‘You can name him whatever you want, Mr. President, and nobody will give him a damn.’”
Powell claimed Trump seemed to want him to confiscate voting machines amid his court defeat.
Trump is seen during the UFC 295 event at Madison Square Garden on November 11, 2023, in New York City. ZUMAPRESS.com
“I guess [Trump] assumed, and I would think, that I would look to implement provisions of 13848 that would allow the machines to be secured in four or five states or cities,” Powell said, referring to the draft executive order that Trump is considering signing.
Powell added that he followed up with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the special counsel gig even though he believed he would not actually be placed in the role.
“I called Mark Meadows the next morning just to hit the ground running, and said, ‘Hey, when can I come get my badge and keys?'” Powell said. “He basically laughed — I mean he said, you know, ‘It’s not going to happen.'”
Ellis is shown in a police booking photo released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, after a Grand Jury returned indictments against former president Trump and 18 of his associates in their attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 state election in Atlanta, Georgia, in August. 23, 2023. via REUTERS
Powell also touched on his experience working with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to challenge the results of the 2020 election, explaining that things got “very ugly.”
“There was a huge shouting match where Rudy called me every name in the book and I was the worst lawyer he had ever seen in his life. There is no situation where he will work with me on anything. He called me a bitch and I don’t know what, and that’s all I remember about that one,” he told Georgia prosecutors.
A spokesman for Giuliani told The Post that Powell’s account cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing. The former New York City mayor faces 13 felony charges in the case.
“The government’s main witness, Sidney Powell, has just cleared Rudy Giuliani of any involvement in the conspiracy by making it clear that Rudy Giuliani told him that he would not work with him on anything, under any circumstances,” Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s political adviser, said in a statement.
“If Fani Willis had any integrity, she would have dismissed the case against Rudy Giuliani and ended this farce of a trial designed solely to keep President Donald Trump out of the White House in 2024,” Goodman added.
Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner, faces 13 felony charges in Georgia.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
