Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Jun 13, 2023. (Photo: AP/Andrew Harnik)
Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday (Aug 31) to charges that he led a criminal conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia.
The Republican presidential frontrunner, who faces 13 felony counts including racketeering, entered his plea in a court filing waiving his right to appear at an arraignment next Wednesday.
Trump, 77, surrendered to the Fulton County jail in the state capital Atlanta last week and was the first former US president pictured in a police mug shot.
Released on a US$200,000 bond and given the inmate number “PO1135809,” Trump was accused of colluding with 18 other defendants in a multi-pronged attempt to overturn his defeat in Georgia.
The billionaire – who lost the state by fewer than 12,000 votes – has been indicted four times since April, setting the stage for a year of unprecedented drama as he juggles numerous court appearances and another White House campaign.
Trump is asking for his case to be severed from co-defendants who have sought a speedy trial, including Kenneth Chesebro, a Trump campaign lawyer due to go before a jury in October.
Fulton County prosecutors want an October start for every defendant.
Trump’s arrest came a day after he spurned a televised debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin featuring eight of his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination – all of whom lag well behind him in the polls.
During the debate all but two of the candidates said they would support him as the party’s nominee even if he were a convicted felon.
Trump is the first US president in history to face criminal charges.
His various trials, if they take place next year, are set to coincide with the Republican presidential primary season, which begins in January, and the campaign for the November 2024 White House election.
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s lawyer and confidant, turned himself in at a jail in Atlanta on Wednesday on charges related to efforts to overturn then-President Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Pic: https://www.arkansasonline.com/
The former New York mayor, was indicted last week along with Trump and 17 others. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said they participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to subvert the will of the voters after the Republican president lost to Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020.
Bond for Giuliani, who was released after booking like the other defendants, was set at $150,000, second only to Trump’s $200,000.
Giuliani, 79, is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia and other closely contested states to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint electoral college electors favorable to Trump.
Other high-profile defendants also surrendered Wednesday, including Jenna Ellis, an attorney who prosecutors say was involved in efforts to convince state lawmakers to unlawfully appoint presidential electors, and lawyer Sidney Powell, accused of making false statements about the election in Georgia and helping to organize a breach of voting equipment in rural Coffee County.
Georgia was one of several key states Trump lost by slim margins, prompting the Republican and his allies to proclaim, without evidence, that the election was rigged in favor of his Democratic rival Biden.
Giuliani is charged with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state lawmakers to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternate slate of pro-Trump electors.
Outside the Fulton County Jail Wednesday afternoon, Giuliani laughed when asked if he regretted allying himself with Trump.
“I am very, very honored to be involved in this case because this case is a fight for our way of life,” Giuliani told reporters. “This indictment is a travesty. It’s an attack on — not just me, not just President Trump, not just the people in this indictment, some of whom I don’t even know – this is an attack on the American people.”
After Giuliani’s surrender, Trump repeated his unfounded claims that the election was rigged and stolen and wrote on his social media site, “The greatest Mayor in the history of New York City was just ARRESTED in Atlanta, Georgia, because he fought for Election Integrity.”
Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has said he plans to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday. He and his allies have characterized the investigation as politically motivated and have heavily criticized District Attorney Willis, a Democrat.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark are both trying to have the case against them heard in federal court rather than in Fulton County Superior Court. Both argue the actions that gave rise to the charges in the indictment were related to their work as federal officials and that the case should be moved to federal court and the charges against them dismissed.
They had each asked a judge to allow them to avoid being arrested while those requests are pending. But U.S. District Judge Steve Jones on Wednesday rejected their requests to avoid having to be booked in jail while they fight to move the case to federal court.
Willis has set a deadline of noon on Friday for the people indicted last week in the election subversion case to turn themselves in. Her team has been negotiating bond amounts and conditions with the lawyers for the defendants before they surrender at the jail.
Misty Hampton, who was the Coffee County elections director when a breach of election equipment happened there, had her bond set at $10,000. David Shafer, who’s a former Georgia Republican Party chair and served as one of 16 fake electors for Trump, and Cathy Latham, who’s accused in the Coffee County breach and was also a fake elector, turned themselves in Wednesday morning. Also surrendering Wednesday were lawyers Ray Smith and Kenneth Chesebro, who prosecutors said helped organize the fake electors meeting at the state Capitol in December 2020.
The former New York City mayor, 79, has denied accusations that he illegally tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Rudy Giuliani outside the Fulton County jail on Wednesday
Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has surrendered to authorities in Georgia over accusations that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The former New York City mayor was booked into Fulton County jail on Wednesday afternoon after he was charged earlier this month.
The 79-year-old had his mugshot taken and personal details entered before being released on bail, which was set at $150,000 (£118,000).
It comes after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Giuliani, Trump and 17 other defendants earlier this month over an alleged conspiracy to interfere in the election results in the state, which Joe Biden narrowly won.
The defendants are facing a total of 41 charges. All of them have been accused of racketeering, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
DA Willis said she hoped to get a trial date within the next six months and planned to try all 19 together.
Giuliani is accused of making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state lawmakers to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternate slate of pro-Trump electoral college electors.
Speaking to reporters after he was booked, Giuliani said: “I am very, very honoured to be involved in this case because this case is a fight for our way of life.
“This indictment is a travesty. It’s an attack on not just me, not just President Trump, not just the people in this indictment, some of whom I don’t even know – this is an attack on the American people.”
Trump also defended his former lawyer on social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday, describing him as “the greatest mayor in the history of New York City”.
He claimed Giuliani had been charged “because he fought for election integrity”.
“The election was rigged and stolen. How sad for our country,” Trump added.
Other high-profile defendants also surrendered to authorities on Wednesday, including lawyer Sidney Powell, who is accused of making false statements about the election in Georgia and helping to organise a breach of voting equipment in rural Coffee County.
Trump is already defending several other cases – just a year before he hopes to reclaim the presidency.
Pic: AP
A court in Georgia has charged Donald Trump with trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
Among the charges is ‘solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer’ in other words trying to persuade someone to betray their office.
It is the fourth set of charges against the former president.
Prosecutors brought 13 counts against Trump and his associates, including forgery and racketeering, which is most often used to target members of organised crime groups.
Ten other people have been charged including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s former lawyer and ex New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, another of Trump’s ex lawyers.
The court in Atlanta sat beyond usual working hours as a grand jury decided whether or not to charge the former president.
Trump narrowly lost to Joe Biden in Georgia and his lawyers, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, made false claims of election fraud.
Audio of a call by Trump to Georgia’s secretary of state also emerged in January 2021 in which he suggested election officials could “find” the votes he needed to win.
Trump is already defending several other cases – just a year before he hopes to reclaim the presidency.
The most serious concern allegations he plotted to overturn his election loss, laying the ground for the infamous US Capitol riots.
He denies the claims and says they are politically motivated.
In a statement, the Trump campaign said: “They could have brought this two and a half years ago, yet they chose todo this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trump’s successful campaign.
