Jenna Ellis' testimony about 'the boss' not wanting to leave office could be 'game over' for Trump, legal analyst says
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
- Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis said an advisor told her the president would not leave his post.
- A legal analyst told CNN Ellis gave "golden evidence for prosecutors both in Georgia and in DC."
- Trump was indicted in Georgia on charges related to overturning the 2020 election results.
A recent testimony from former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis could prove fatal to Donald Trump's defense, a legal analyst told CNN.
On Monday, ABC News obtained confidential interviews that Ellis gave to Fulton County investigators about what she knew of the investigation. The proffer sessions happened due to plea deals that Ellis and fellow Trump ally Sidney Powell took in the Georgia racketeering criminal case related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
During the session, Ellis said that Dan Scavino, a Trump political advisor, told Ellis during the 2020 White House Christmas party that "the boss" would not be leaving the White House, even after his team lost multiple legal challenges to the election results.
Per Ellis, during the December 19 Christmas party, she had told Scavino that their cause was "essentially over."
"And he said to me, in a kind of excited tone, 'Well, we don't care, and we're not going to leave,'" Ellis said of Scavino. "And I said, 'What do you mean?' And he said 'Well, the boss', meaning President Trump — and everyone understood 'the boss,' that's what we all called him — he said, 'The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.'"
She continued: "And I said to him, 'Well, it doesn't quite work that way, you realize?' and he said, 'We don't care.'"
Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel for the Department of Defense and the co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, told CNN that if prosecutors can prove Trump knew he lost the election and tried to overturn the results, it would be "game over" for his case in Georgia. And Ellis' interview with authorities could aid in that.
"She's adding something that's golden evidence for prosecutors both in Georgia and in DC, which is, they don't have to prove this but if they can show that Trump knew he lost and was still trying to hold on to power, that's it. That's game over. And that's exactly what she says is the context of the conversation."
Representatives for Powell, Scavino, Trump, and Ellis did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
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