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Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis will cooperate in Arizona investigation of 'fake electors,' AG Kris Mayes announces

Mayes agrees to drop charges in exchange for Ellis' cooperation with prosecutors. Ellis has already struck a plea deal in similar case in Georgia.

PHOENIX — Donald Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis will cooperate in Arizona's "fake electors" investigation, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Monday.

Ellis has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for all nine felony charges being dropped, Mayes said in a news release. Ellis struck a plea deal last year in a similar Georgia case.

On last weekend's "Sunday Square Off," Mayes had revealed that one of the 18 defendants in the case was going to flip, and that the announcement was planned for this week.

VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Abogada de Trump cooperará en investigación de Arizona sobre ‘falsos electores’, anuncia la fiscal Kris Mayes

She also stuck to a previous forecast that the first trial in the case would come next year.

RELATED: Arizona’s ‘fake electors’ explained. This was the goal of their false votes.

Ellis, a former Trump legal adviser, allegedly worked with Rudy Giuliani on a pressure campaign to reverse Arizona's 2020 presidential election results.

In the Georgia case, Ellis agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for a sentence of five years probation.

Ellis told the Fulton County, Ga., court that she had "failed to do my due diligence" in other states.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges," Ellis told the court. "I look back on this full experience with deep remorse.”

Arizona is one of five battleground states where criminal charges have been filed in similar fake elector schemes after the 2020 presidential election.

The Arizona indictments handed up in May, allege the state's 11 Republican electors and seven Trump allies engaged in an illegal scheme to falsely put forward the electors as duly chosen by Arizona voters. 

The goal was to block Congress' certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

The 17 remaining defendants -  including former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani; former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; and former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward - have entered not-guilty pleas. 

Each defendant was charged with the same nine felony counts of fraud, forgery and conspiracy.

At least three defendants have filed motions to dismiss the charges.

Two of the defendants - state Sens. Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman - were on the July 31 Arizona primary ballot. 

Kern finished fifth in the six-candidate Republican primary in the West Valley's Eighth Congressional District.

Hoffman was unopposed in his state Senate primary for a safe Republican seat in the East Valley.

A copy of the attorney general's agreement with Ellis can be found below:

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