Donald Trump's Allies Are Falling Like Dominoes

Former key allies of Donald Trump are turning on him as he faces criminal charges relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Four of the former president's 18 co-defendants in an election subversion case in Georgia have pleaded guilty, leaving him high and dry. Trump has pleaded not guilty and has consistently denied wrongdoing in the case.

Jenna Ellis, one of the Republican's former lawyers who is accused of drafting a letter to top state officials declaring the state's election results in 2020 illegitimate, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a deal with Fulton County prosecutors.

She pleaded guilty to one felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings and agreed to the prosecutor's recommendations that she face five years of probation, pay a $5,00 fine in restitution, and perform 100 hours of community service.

Through tears, she told the court on Tuesday: "If I knew then what I know now I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this full experience with deep remorse for those failures."

Newsweek has contacted Trump's representatives to comment on this story.

Last week, another former Trump lawyer, Kenneth Chesebero, pleaded guilty in the case. Accused of helping devise a plan to submit a fake slate of electors for Trump, he pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to file false documents. He had faced a total of seven charges in the case and now faces five years of probation, a $5,000 fine, and community service.

Speaking about Chesebro's plea, Atlanta lawyer Rachel Kaufman told the BBC that it was "the biggest blow yet" to Trump's defense. "The chips are falling and falling on Trump," she said.

On Thursday, Sidney Powell, another ex-lawyer, admitted six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit election interference in a court hearing in Atlanta. She was sentenced to six years probation and agreed to pay a $6,000 fine and restitution of $2,700.

Trump has since distanced himself from Powell, stating she "was not my attorney and never was" in a post on Truth Social.

A fourth co-defendant, bail bondsman Scott Hall, struck a plea deal with prosecutors in late September. He was accused of conspiring to unlawfully access voter data and ballot counting machines at the Coffee County election office on January 7, 2021.

And Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows allegedly testified to a federal grand jury about his former boss's efforts to overturn the election in exchange for a court order granting him limited immunity from prosecution, ABC reported.

Speaking to CNN's Kaitlin Collins on The Source, Eli Honig, a former New York federal prosecutor said Meadows could provide insight into what happened during the January 6 Capitol riots.

"Because now the DOJ (Department of Justice) believes they can use Mark Meadows' testimony," he said. "And Mark Meadows was Donald Trump's right hand—at his side literally throughout the key weeks, days, and months leading up to and during Jan. 6 as well."

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman also told the host: "This was the first example we have seen in detail. Look, he testified in Georgia for several hours—so there's examples there that are under oath or at least threat of perjury.

"Mark Meadows was at the center at so much of this," she said. "He was talking to so many people."

"And he could speak to Trump's mindset in a very specific way."

The Georgia case is one of Trump's four criminal cases and one of two specifically surrounding his actions around the 2020 election.