Two attorneys with strong Colorado ties were among the 18 people indicted along with former President Donald Trump by a Georgia grand jury on Monday on criminal charges alleging an elaborate scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

John Eastman, who currently represents the Colorado Republican Party, and Jenna Ellis, a former assistant professor at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, were named in the 41-count indictment. It alleges violations of the state’s anti-racketeering law, the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, traditionally used against organized crime.

Eastman, who advised Trump in the months following the 2020 election, faces nine counts, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit forgery, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath and filing false documents. 

A member of the Trump’s legal team after the election, Ellis is accused on two counts: racketeering and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.

Others charged in the sweeping indictment were former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell.

Eastman and Ellis both accused Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of seeking to make it illegal for lawyers to represent their clients.

“Lawyers everywhere should be sleepless over this latest stunt to criminalize their advocacy,” Eastman said in a statement. “This is a legal cluster-bomb that leaves unexploded ordinances for lawyers to navigate in perpetuity.”

Ellis charged on social media that Willis is “criminalizing the practice of law.”

“I am resolved to trust the Lord and I will simply continue to honor, praise, and serve Him,” she added.

Denver attorney Mike Melito, who represents Ellis, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The 98-page indictment described Eastman as a chief architect of a legal argument that former Vice President Mike Pence could block certification of Biden’s victory in his role presiding over the U.S. Senate on Jan. 6, when Congress convened to count electoral votes and certify the presidential election.

The indictment also alleged that Eastman helped organize slates of false electors from swing states won by Biden. In addition, prosecutors said the lawyer submitted court filings he knew to be based on false information and urged Pence to violate federal law, while acknowledging that what he was advising was illegal.

Eastman appeared as an unnamed co-conspirator in a four-count federal felony indictment handed down earlier this month in Washington that alleged Trump spent months on an attempt to block the transfer of power to Democrat Joe Biden.

A former dean of Chapman University Law School in California, Eastman was serving as a visiting scholar of conservative thought and policy at the University of Colorado in Boulder when he was also advising Trump after his loss to Biden. University officials cancelled his classes – citing low enrollment – and curtailed his other duties after Eastman spoke at a White House rally that preceded the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Eastman is representing the state Republican Party in a federal lawsuit filed on Aug. 1 seeking to prevent the state’s unaffiliated voters from participating in primary elections on constitutional grounds.

GOP officials told Colorado Politics on Wednesday that they are confident Eastman is the right attorney to handle the case, which argues that a voter-approved ballot measure infringes on the party’s First Amendment rights. Eastman represented a group of Colorado Republicans last year in a similar lawsuit that was dismissed, in part, because the state Republican Party hadn’t signed on as a plaintiff.

“These charges are absolutely unfounded and are nothing more than a political attack from radical Democrats who are weaponizing our justice system to orchestrate a witch hunt against political opponents,” Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams said in a text message.

Calling the indictment “a clown circus,” former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, who is chairing the committee in charge of overseeing the lawsuit, said he isn’t bothered by the charges Eastman is facing

“I think he is a very competent and qualified attorney and a man of integrity, and he has special knowledge of the GOP’s lawsuit,” Lundberg said. “I think he’s the best man for the job to understand the situation and deal with all the legal nuances involved.”

Ellis on Tuesday launched an online crowd-funding campaign to cover her legal expenses amid reports that the Trump campaign and its associated entities have cut her off after she backed Florida Gov. Ron De Santis in this cycle’s presidential primary.

“We will fight for Jenna,” wrote Melito, her attorney, in a statement Ellis posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “If you would like to help support our efforts please consider donating by clicking the link below. America and the profession of law are worth the fight.”

Through 6 p.m. Thursday, her GiveSendGo legal defense fund had raised nearly $20,000.

Ellis, who is licensed to practice law in Colorado but says on social media she currently lives in Florida, was formally censured in March by the Colorado court system for making false statements about Trump’s election loss.

As part of the disciplinary action, Ellis agreed that she made 10 “misrepresentations” in nationally televised appearances and on social media.

Noting that the disciplinary case was unprecedented, the state court’s presiding disciplinary judge said in his opinion that Ellis’s numerous false claims had “undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public.”

Eastman is facing disbarment in California on allegations he helped Trump try to undo the 2020 election results. The California state bar ruled on Wednesday that Eastman’s trial will continue next week despite his request to postpone the proceedings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.