Athens — In Georgia, attorney Jenna Ellis has pled guilty to the charge of election interference.

In the extensive racketeering case centred on attempts to retain then-President Donald Trump in office following his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, Ellis is the fourth defendant to enter a guilty plea.

Just before the start of their trial, attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell filed guilty pleas last week. In September, bail bondsman Scott Hall entered a guilty plea.

Ellis entered a guilty plea to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in return for providing honest testimony in subsequent trials. Racketeering was one of the two charges on which she had been accused.

The plea bargain also stipulates 100 hours of community service, five years of probation, $5,000 in restitution to the Georgia Secretary of State's office, and a letter of apology to the people of Georgia.

Ellis's accusation is a result of a subcommittee hearing held by Georgia's Senate Judiciary Committee on December 3, 2020, during which Trump's attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and Ray Smith, presented a long list of fictitious allegations of widespread election fraud.

In the Georgia case, co-defendants Guliani and Smith claimed that tens of thousands of convicts, children, and deceased voters cast ballots in Georgia in 2020. Ellis entered a guilty plea to providing assistance for this testimony, which the prosecution claims was done to persuade lawmakers to ignore Biden's Georgia win.

During Tuesday's plea hearing, prosecutor Daysha Young stated, "The false statements were made with reckless disregard for the truth."

Ellis sought to address the court and started crying.

"What I did not do, but should have done, your honour, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were in fact true," Ellis stated. "I did not conduct my due diligence in the frenzied pace of trying to mount challenges to the election in various places, including Georgia. I respect and believe in electoral integrity. I would not have accepted to represent Donald Trump in these post-election disputes if I had known then what I know now."

A Colorado judge censured Ellis earlier this year after she acknowledged making many false claims on the 2020 presidential contest.

Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia has not yet scheduled a trial for Trump or the other co-defendants.

It's doubtful that a Georgia trial would start before next spring since the federal election meddling trial for the former president is set to begin in March.