According to a new court filing, former President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in the vast Fulton County election tampering case.
Trump was supposed to be arraigned in court next Wednesday. Criminal defendants in Georgia can forego their in-person presence and submit a formal plea through court files.
Trump has formally requested that his case be separated from that of his co-defendants, who desire a swift trial. Trump’s lawyer claims that he will not have “sufficient time” to prepare his case for trial by October 23, 2023, and that forcing that date would “violate President Trump’s federal and state constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process of law.”
Trump is facing more than a dozen charges
Trump’s arraignment marks the fourth time he has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges since leaving office. In this lawsuit, Trump is accused of racketeering in his purported efforts to sway Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.
Several of the former president’s co-defendants, including Sidney Powell and Trevian Kutti, have also waived their in-court appearances and pleaded not guilty. Defendants who do not waive their attendance will appear in court on September 6, as scheduled.
Last Thursday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, asked the court supervising the case to set a trial date for all 19 defendants for October 23.
In response, Trump’s lawyers stated that they oppose the scheduled date and anticipate pre-trial disagreements that may prolong the proceedings. Several co-defendants, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, have sought to have their cases transferred from Georgia state court to federal court, a more advantageous legal venue that would also delay the proceedings.
“Respectfully, requiring less than two months of preparation time to defend a 98-page indictment, charging 19 defendants, with 41 various charges including a RICO conspiracy charge with 161 Overt Acts, Solicitation of Violation of Oath by an Officer, False Statements and Writings, Forgery, Influencing Witnesses, Computer Crimes, Conspiracy to Defraud the State, and other offenses, would violate President Trump’s federal and state constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process of law,” Trump’s attorneys said Thursday.
Trump is facing more than a dozen accusations, some of which are related to efforts to submit bogus electors in order to falsely claim that he won Georgia in 2020. He turned himself in last week and agreed to a $200,000 bond and other terms of release, including not using social media to attack the co-defendants and witnesses in the case.
He has also been charged in three other cases: one involving a hush-money payment to an adult-film star in Manhattan in 2016, another concerning the alleged misuse of confidential national security data, and a third alleging efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
