Jenna Ellis, a legal adviser to the Trump campaign and one of the attorneys leading the president’s efforts to overturn the election results, has tested positive for the coronavirus, a source confirmed Tuesday.
Axios first reported that Ellis had contracted the virus and that White House officials had been informed of her diagnosis after she attended a holiday party there last Friday. Ellis posted a photo from the party on her Instagram page.
ABC and CNN later confirmed that Ellis had contracted the virus.
Ellis did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Trump campaign. She was a guest on Fox Business Network earlier Tuesday, but she filmed the appearance from her home.
The legal adviser’s positive test comes days after the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani tested positive for the virus. The two traveled together to Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan in recent days to levy allegations of voter fraud that they argue would change the outcome of the election. But they have not presented any such evidence in court, and judges in multiple states have dismissed their claims as without standing.
Ellis’s role in arguing President Trump’s case has largely been centered on messaging rather than making actual legal arguments. The New York Times reported that the Trump campaign and its allies have filed roughly 50 election-related lawsuits, but that Ellis has not signed her name to a single one.
Her presence at the White House holiday party could raise concerns of yet another coronavirus outbreak in the West Wing.
The president, first lady, chief of staff Mark Meadows, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior advisers Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller and former Trump campaign advisers David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski are among those who have contracted the virus in recent months.
Despite rising infection rates around the country, the White House has moved ahead holding in-person holiday celebrations where dozens of guests attend without masks.