Trump planned to stay in power regardless

Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell Describe Trump Plan To Remain in White House: Report
Ellis says she was told: 'The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances' after 2020 results
Published |Updated
Zachary Leeman
Portions of interviews between attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell and Fulton County, Georgia prosecutors was shared with ABC News and contain multiple revelations, including a Rudy Giuiliani argument and Donald Trump's alleged plan to simply remain in the White House despite losing the 2020 election.

Both Ellis and Powell pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in a racketeering case where Trump and over a dozen allies are facing charges over their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and called the case politically motivated.

Ellis claimed Dan Scavino, the former White House deputy chief of staff, told her at a December 2020 party that Trump planned on remaining in the White House, regardless of the results of his legal battles to challenge Joe Biden's victory.
"The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances," Ellis recalled Scavino saying, according to ABC's report on the partial video.

Ellis alleged she told Scavino this is not how the legal system works and he responded, "Well, we don't care, and we're not going to leave."

Steve Sadow, Trump's counsel in his Fulton County case, dismissed the proffer interviews as "absolutely meaningless."

"If this is the type of bogus, ridiculous 'evidence' DA Willis intends to rely upon, it is one more reason that this political, travesty of a case must be dismissed," Sadow said in a statement.

Jenna Ellis reacts after reading a statement after Ellis pleaded guilty to a felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, inside Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee's Fulton County Courtroom at the Fulton County Courthouse October 24, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images
Jenna Ellis reacts after reading a statement after Ellis pleaded guilty to a felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings, inside Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee's Fulton County Courtroom at the Fulton County Courthouse October 24, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images
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Powell, who Trump has said was never officially his lawyer, alleged during her proffer interview that she was in daily contact with Trump and he was even considering making her "special counsel" to deal with election fraud, which would have included seizing voting machines from multiple swing states Trump claimed he won when he actually lost.

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"Did I know anything about election law? No," Powell admitted at one point to prosecutors. "But I understand fraud from having been a prosecutor for 10 years, and knew generally what the fraud suit should be if the evidence showed what I thought it showed."

Powell also described a shouting match with Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who represented Trump and spearheaded many of his efforts to challenge the 2020 results.

Giuliani was allegedly frustrated with Powell's work on challenging the 2020 results.

"There was a big shouting match in which Rudy called me every name in the book and I was the worst lawyer he'd ever seen in his life," she said. "There were no circumstances under which he'd work with me on anything. He called me a b—h and I don't know what all, and that's pretty much all I remember about that one."

She also claimed she told several people planning on attending Trump's January 6 rally in Washington D.C. not to attend because she thought it was a recipe for something bad. Protesters eventually rioted and entered the Capitol.

"I just saw it as a really bad idea to have a rally over the end of the Trump presidency. I just wouldn't have encouraged people," she said.