Attorney Jenna Ellis has gained prominence as a key member of President Donald Trump‘s legal team challenging the election results. She’s also been the subject of increased scrutiny.
In a Wall Street Journal profile of her earlier this month, she said she’d been fired from a previous role—as a prosector for the Weld County District Attorney’s office in Colorado—after “she refused to bring a case to trial that she believed was an unethical prosecution.” A new report by the Colorado Sun, however, casts doubt on that version of events.
According to records obtained by the Sun from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, in 2013 Ellis was fired from her position as the deputy district attorney due to “unsatisfactory performance.”
According to the Sun, in addition to one record showing that Ellis was fired for “unsatisfactory performance,” another record states that Ellis “failed to meet the employer’s expectations” and “made mistakes on cases the employer believes she should not have made.”
The Sun also reported that one of the records obtained stated that “the employer noted some cases were being processed that did not adhere to the Victim Rights Act.”
“There is the appearance in case documentation the claimant did not follow proper protocol for some of the cases she handled,” the records show, according to the Sun.
Trump attorney Jenna Ellis speaks during a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on November 19. Mandel Ngan/Getty
According to the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, the Victim Rights Act ensures that victims are treated fairly and respectfully, while also ensuring that victims “are informed of critical stages of the criminal justice process and that they may be present for, and heard, at certain stages as well.
Additionally, after being dismissed from her role as deputy district attorney, Ellis applied for unemployment benefits. According to the Sun, the Weld County District Attorney’s office appealed her request to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and a hearing officer noted that while Ellis did make errors while on the job, they were “few when compared to the total number of cases handled by (her) overall.”
“The number of cases in which (Ellis) committed an irreparable, egregious act was not significant compared to the total number of cases she processed,” the document obtained by the Sun said. “There are insufficient facts (Ellis) was not performing the duties to the best of her ability.”
Despite being fired from her role, the state labor department approved her unemployment benefit request. In Colorado, employers must state that the employee intentionally failed to meet their duties to prevent them from receiving these benefits.
In response to the report, a statement sent to the Sun from Trump’s campaign read, “This is a nonstory from a decade ago trying to damage her reputation simply because she works for President Trump.”
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for a comment from Ellis and to the Weld County District Attorney’s office but did not receive responses in time for publication.
