A woman has admitted guilt in the Arizona Trump electors case just two days after attorney Jenna Ellis reached a plea deal.
Loraine Pellegrino, former president of Ahwatukee Republican Women, enrolled a plea of guilty to a misdemeanor for filing a false document. As part of her sentence, she received three years of unsupervised probation and is required to complete community service. Pellegrino initially pleaded not guilty and faced nine felony charges.
Ellis, a prominent figure in the Trump campaign, might testify against notable figures including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and other co-defendants in Arizona.
These alternative electors in Arizona and several other states believed that Vice President Mike Pence would certify Trump as the 2020 election winner, but Pence did not, leading to the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, where some participants expressed threats towards him.
Similar criminal charges against fake Trump electors have surfaced in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. A judge threw out the Nevada case in June, but prosecutors are currently appealing this decision, according to The Hill.
Ellis reached a plea agreement on Monday in the Arizona case and has since distanced herself from her previous support for Trump after securing a plea deal in Georgia. Under her current agreement, if she cooperates with all ongoing federal or state charges in Arizona, “all charges against her will be dismissed,” noted attorney Joyce Vance in her legal blog, Civil Discourse.
Vance explained, “Entering into a cooperation deal makes a defendant quite vulnerable. Prosecutors have the sole discretion to determine if a defendant has upheld their side of the bargain.”
In April, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the indictment of Meadows, Giuliani, and 16 others, including Ellis, along with 11 Republicans accused of falsely asserting Trump won the state in a document sent to Congress. All but Ellis and Pellegrino have pleaded not guilty.
Arizona, which saw Biden defeat Trump by over 10,000 votes, is one of seven states where Republicans have been accused of impersonating electors.
Mayes revealed last year that her office was probing those who posed as electors, asserting Trump’s victory in Arizona in 2020.
On December 14, 2020, a group of Republicans gathered in Phoenix to sign documents falsely claiming they were the “duly elected and qualified electors” for the state, asserting Trump’s win, along with another group of activists who also signed similar fraudulent declarations.
