Jenna Ellis hosts election denier and fellow former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell to spread election misinformation
Since being indicted in April for her alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona, Ellis has hosted Mitchell at least twice on her radio show
Written by Payton Armstrong
Published
Jenna Ellis has hosted election denier and former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell on her radio show at least twice following Ellis’ recent indictment for her alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona. During the appearances, Mitchell and Ellis spread misinformation about noncitizens voting in the November 2024 election, with Mitchell alleging that this is part of “the Democrat secret plan to win this year.”
Mitchell is an election denier and former Trump attorney who leads the Election Integrity Network — which is a “coalition” of right-wing, election-denying activists that has reportedly recruited and trained poll watchers to seemingly monitor elections for alleged fraud. According to The Intercept, Mitchell “played a central role in the effort to stop the certification of the election in Georgia and beyond.”
Mitchell also reportedly “helped funnel money to groups working on the partisan Arizona ballot review that Trump and his allies have twisted to advance their false narrative” about voter fraud.
Ellis, who is also a former Trump attorney, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to charges for her role in former President Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. In April, Ellis was indicted by an Arizona grand jury and is “accused of organizing an attempt to use fake documents to persuade Congress not to certify Joe Biden’s victory.”
Since being indicted in Arizona, Ellis has hosted Mitchell on her American Family Radio program at least twice. In these appearances, Ellis and Mitchell fearmongered about noncitizens voting in elections, which mirrored recent messaging from right-wing media and Republican politicians. Experts and media outlets have repeatedly debunked noncitizen voting as “extremely rare” — including in Arizona specifically.
On June 13, Ellis hosted Mitchell on her radio program, praising Mitchell for “doing really great work ... on all of the important voter issues heading into 2024” and noting that Mitchell has been on the program “to talk about all of the Democrats' push to get the right to vote to illegals.” Ellis said that noncitizen voting “ultimately undermine[s] our ability as American citizens,” and that “we should be the only ones that are voting in elections.”
Discussing the upcoming election, Mitchell warned listeners that “there are no post-election remedies available to us anymore,” citing “the post-election of 2020 [when] we had courts ruling that President Trump … did not have standing to bring election challenges to his own election.” Mitchell also cited “what happened in Arizona when Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh filed challenges to their elections” in 2022, noting that there’s “still a court challenge pending for the Republican attorney general candidate of Arizona.”
Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell on 6/13/24
Citation From the June 13, 2024, edition of American Family Radio's Jenna Ellis in the Morning
JENNA ELLIS (HOST): I'm speaking with Cleta Mitchell, who's the senior legal fellow for the Conservative Partnership Institute and the chair of the Election Integrity Network, and has been doing really great work on these issues and then on all of the important voter issues heading into 2024. We've had her on a number of times on this program to talk about all of the Democrats' push to get the right to vote to illegals and all of these other things that ultimately undermine our ability as American citizens for only us, we should be the only ones that are voting in elections, and that shouldn't be controversial, but somehow it is. So if this is appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court … and then potentially, you know, further than that, to the U.S. Supreme Court if there's, you know, if there are other issues because this may impact the presidential election. And so could it potentially go all the way up? And is that a factor of consideration on whether or not either side would appeal?
CLETA MITCHELL (GUEST): Well, I think that hopefully one of the things that you mentioned, and that I'm very — I tell people very strongly, for Republicans, for President Trump, but for Republican candidates generally, there are no post-election remedies available to us anymore. I don't care what the statutes say. After living through what we lived through, and, Jenna, we know this better than anybody from everything you've been through. But in the post-election of 2020, we had courts ruling that President Trump, as a candidate for president, that he or his campaign did not have standing to bring election challenges to his own election, and yet, these same courts grant standing to any, fake or phony or real left-wing organization that comes in and challenges election laws. It has evolved over a period of many years. Republicans haven't done anything about it, and so we've suffered the consequences.
And I just don't — and we saw what happened in Arizona when Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh filed challenges to their elections. There's still a court challenge pending for the Republican attorney general candidate of Arizona, and there are fewer than 200 votes separating him and the and the person who is declared the winner, the Democrat who's declared the winner.
Ellis also hosted Mitchell on May 9, and they fearmongered about noncitizens voting in the November election, including in Arizona. Mitchell and Ellis pushed rhetoric echoing the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which posits “that nonwhite individuals are being brought into the United States and other Western countries to ‘replace’ white voters to achieve a political agenda.” Mitchell baselessly claimed that there are “left-wing socialist organizations that are bringing these illegals into communities all over the country” and “giving them voter registration,” asserting that she thinks it’s “the Democrat secret plan to win this year.”
Mitchell said that in Arizona, there are “people that are allowed to vote who cannot prove that they're citizens.” Ellis said that “according to the Census Bureau [there are] over 21,700,000 potential noncitizen voters,” and that “if even a fraction of those potential noncitizen voters actually engage in voting in 2024, that has the potential to swing a lot of elections.”
Mitchell told Ellis that noncitizens voting in the November election has “the potential” to “completely wreck America as a constitutional republic.” Ellis ended the interview by claiming that Democrats are “undermining our constitutional republic,” thanking Mitchell “for bringing this to our attention,” and urging her listeners to “call your members of Congress” about noncitizen voting.
Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell on 5/9/24
Citation From the May 9, 2024, edition of American Family Radio's Jenna Ellis in the Morning
CLETA MITCHELL (GUEST): We have this complete disregard of the immigration laws, which is why the House impeached Secretary Mayorkas, first time in American history that a cabinet secretary has been impeached, for failure to enforce the immigration laws. I just think that nobody thought — nobody dreamed that they would go this far as to want to have noncitizens, illegals even, voting in our elections because the Democrats need to get their numbers up because the American people are not buying what they're selling, so they need to get different kinds of voters. That's what they're doing. They're shopping for voters.
JENNA ELLIS (HOST): Yeah, and I mean, and even the polling is indicating that Biden's coalition is fading away, and he's losing a lot of votes.
…
But as you mentioned, this is part of the Biden administration's agenda to bring in all of these — flying all of these illegals that they've admitted to bring in potentially all of these refugees from Gaza. I mean and even Speaker Johnson, Cleta, has said even as of a few years ago in Congress that this is the intent of the Democrats.
…
MITCHELL: I want to encourage people, if you want to know more, we launched an only citizens vote coalition. It has over 70 organizations, including American Family Association, have signed on to support the principle. Go to the website. … You can read the SAVE Act. You can see, there's a way to sign up. We are going to have toolkits where people can — what are the things people can do, and I believe that this, if we can give Americans the way that they can get involved and talk to their local officials. Look, I'm for people talking to their county commissioners and their city councils and their local election boards and talking to their DMVs and saying, “What are you doing to make sure that you are not registering noncitizens?” These are things that as citizens, if we get engaged, I fully believe that we can reclaim this process from the left-wing socialist organizations that are bringing these illegals into communities all over the country, and I believe very strongly that they are giving them voter registration, getting them registered because that's, I think, the Democrat secret plan to win this year.
ELLIS: Wow. … And I'm looking on this website, Cleta, and one of the highlighted items is that according to the Census Bureau, over 21,700,000 potential noncitizen voters. I mean, that number is staggering. And if even a fraction of those potential noncitizen voters actually engage in voting in 2024, that has the potential to swing a lot of elections. I mean, we're not just talking about the presidential election or federal? I mean, this would include state elections as well, right?
MITCHELL: Absolutely. It will include city council, county commissions, state legislatures. I mean, the potential for this to completely wreck America as a constitutional republic is very real. I mean, how many illegals does it take to get into Utah's election to get them registered when Utah has all vote by mail? So there and I don't care what anybody says. When you have voting by mail, I call that unsupervised voting. North Dakota does not have voter registration. How many illegals does it take to get into North Dakota to go vote, and we don't know until the next day, and suddenly North Dakota split from red to blue.
In Arizona, because of this Supreme Court decision in 2013 that said Arizona could not require proof of citizenship to vote in the federal elections using that federal postcard. Arizona now has a two-tiered system. They have a federal only registration list, and guess who's on the federal only registration list? Those are the people that are allowed to vote who cannot prove that they're citizens, and there are more people registered on the federal only list in Arizona than the margin between President Trump and Joe Biden in 2020.
Ellis also hosted Mitchell on February 1, just months after Ellis pleaded guilty in Georgia and before she was indicted in Arizona. In that appearance, Mitchell raised fears of noncitizens voting in November, including in Georgia. During the interview, Mitchell said that noncitizen voting is a “huge threat.” Ellis later said, “It seems like the left just doesn’t want any rules at all, and if they want rules, they want to manipulate the rules so that the outcome is that they win.”