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.

  • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
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    Conservative podcast host Breanna Morello wrote on X that Ellis had “raised $216,431 on GiveSendGo by promising the American people she would fight for the truth,” and then “folded in just a few weeks.”

    “Will she refund her donors?” Morello asked. “Likely not. A grifter has to grift.”

    It’s astounding that they can be self-aware wolves and members of the face eating leopards at the same time. It’s like they all are just playing this game of Russian roulette hoping that they’ll be the last one standing, even though the six shooter has six bullets in it. “Surely it’ll get jammed or something this time!” splatters brains onto wall

    It reminds me of the COVID days where they would be like “surely I won’t get COVID and if I do this horse paste will save me” dies from fluid filling their lungs

    It has to be absolutely astounding in horrific ways to be a Republican these days. They just keep getting grifted and every time they’re like “surely this one won’t try to grift me!” has all money taken from them

    Just Wow.

    • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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      You don’t drown inside yourself from yourself from covid.

      Your lungs rupture and are unable to uptake oxygen. You breathe like always, it just doesn’t matter, you can barely get any O².

      So you breathe faster. It becomes all you can do. You can’t even talk it’s so laborious, you just sit there, panting. Your chest on fire.

      And then the unthinkable happens. Something youve likely never experienced. The muscles involved in breathing are too tapped out to go on. You tell yourself to breathe, but your body starts not responding. And your breathing slows, your O² levels fall further. You take one last gasp with all your will to live, then pass out and die.

      It’s lonely; utterly tragic. A terrifying, miserable way to die.

      • Riskable@programming.dev
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        Thank you for your excellent description of the totally not fun at all death that could be awaiting us if we don’t get those flu and COVID vaccines.

        It’s not even 9 AM and I’ve already had enough Internet for today.

    • Kushan@lemmy.world
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      Why doee trump keep hiring these grifters? The poor guy has such bad luck, literally everyone associated with him has turned out to be a liar or a grifter.

      If only there was some kind of correlation, some common factor that could help us understand why that is.

    • GONADS125@lemmy.world
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      It’s astounding that they can be self-aware wolves and members of the face eating leopards at the same time.

      You forgot to include Herman Cain Award holders as well.

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    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

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    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.

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    I predict,

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

    • JonEFive@midwest.social
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      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.

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      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.

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    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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        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

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    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.

    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.

    Figures like Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas), Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro, One America News’ Liz Wheeler, Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, Fox Host Mark Levin, Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, far-right writer Ashley St. Claire, and former congressional candidate Robby Starbuck posted links to Ellis’ fundraiser or urged their followers to donate.

    Nevertheless, Ellis fell back to asking for donations to fund her defense, and the prospect of a lengthy trial with no reliable stream of income likely factored into her decision to accept a deal with prosecutors.

    Pro-Trump political consultant Alex Bruesewitz called it an “absolute disgrace” that Ellis  raised $216k from grassroots donors in the name of “fighting back” and then immediately caved.”

    Conservative podcast host Breanna Morello wrote on X that Ellis had “raised $216,431 on GiveSendGo by promising the American people she would fight for the truth,” and then “folded in just a few weeks.”


    The original article contains 764 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!