Jenna Ellis tests positive for Covid-19 days after Rudy Giuliani. Photo / Ap
Jenna Ellis tests positive for Covid-19 days after Rudy Giuliani. Photo / Ap
Another member of Donald Trump's legal team has tested positive for the coronavirus, throwing the US President's effort to overturn his election defeat into further disarray.
Axios reports Jenna Ellis, who's been leading Trump's team alongside his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has told associates she has Covid-19.
Her diagnosis comes just two days after Giuliani's.
There are reportedly fears inside the White House that another outbreak could be looming, as Ellis attended a Christmas party for senior staff in the building's East Wing on Friday.
The event was held indoors and she did not wear a mask.
"She had the nerve to show up at the senior staff Christmas party, knowing everyone was furious with her for constantly stirring Trump up with nonsense," one anonymous source, identified as a "senior administration official", told reporter Jonathan Swan.
Jenna Ellis, a member of President Donald Trump's legal team, speaks during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters. Photo / AP
That was a reference to the President's various conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud, which Giuliani and Ellis have reinforced despite repeated defeats in court.
The pair have recently been travelling across the country holding hearings, giving the campaign's witnesses a public platform from which to voice their fraud allegations.
Ellis declined to confirm her diagnosis. Swan approached her for comment, and asked "repeatedly" whether she wanted to deny Axios's reporting. She did not reply.
After the story was published, she responded in a tweet.
"Funny how the mainstream media is quick to believe one or two unnamed 'sources' every time, and yet refuses to acknowledge hundreds of eyewitnesses across six states who signed affidavits under oath," Ellis wrote.
Again, she did not deny Swan's reporting.
Only a handful of the affidavits Ellis mentioned have actually been put before court as alleged evidence of fraud.
So far, judges in multiple states have found none of them credible.
Dozens more of the witnesses in question have been testifying in the public events attended by Giuliani and Ellis, where they have not been placed under oath. Last week, for example, the pair visited Arizona, Michigan and Georgia.
The fact that Giuliani had travelled so widely in the week before his diagnosis was already a cause for concern. Ellis' infection adds to that concern.
The events were attended by hundreds of people, they were held indoors, and neither lawyer wore a face mask or practised social distancing.
"That is the thing about that video that is so concerning to me, and that makes me, frankly, so disturbed," Dr Megan Ranney, an emergency room physician, told CNN after footage emerged of Giuliani mingling with other people in close quarters.
"We know that the two days before someone develops symptoms, before they test positive, are the time when they are most infectious.
"So Giuliani has not just exposed himself and caught COVID, but he has potentially exposed hundreds and hundreds of Trump supporters to the virus during his most infectious phase."
Yesterday the Trump administration's Surgeon-General, Dr Jerome Adams, appeared on Good Morning America with a pointed message for Americans who've failed to take simple steps to stop the virus's spread.
"It's really concerning to me that we still have people out there that don't understand how much spread is occurring by people who don't have symptoms, who think they're fine. And then we find out a week later that they've tested positive and they have exposed other people. That is very concerning," Dr Adams said.
He did not mention Giuliani by name.
"I want the American people to know this virus is incredibly unforgiving. Cases are going up, hospitalisations are going up. My colleagues are dog-tired," he continued.
"And we need you to hold on just a little bit longer, because we've got vaccines coming, but we want as many people to be alive to get them as possible."
