Trump denies guilt in Fulton County.
Former President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case against him and 18 co-defendants in Fulton County, Georgia, over his challenge of the 2020 election results.
On Aug. 14, the 19 defendants were charged with violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, in a 98-page indictment listing a total of 41 charges. The prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, alleges that their actions in organizing a slate of alternate electors to cast ballots constituted a “criminal racketeering enterprise” and conspiracy.
President Trump is the fourth defendant to plead not guilty. Attorney and former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, publicist Trevian Kutti, and attorney Ray Smith have also pleaded not guilty in advance of the arraignments scheduled for Sept. 6.
President Trump had been scheduled to appear before the Fulton County Superior Court at 9:30 a.m., the first of the defendants. By entering a plea early, they waive their right to appear in court and will not be at the scheduled arraignment.
Unlike President Trump’s previous arraignments, the Fulton County arraignment was set to be televised. Judge Scott McAfee had on Aug. 22 agreed to allow cameras into the courtroom during the proceedings at the request of four local television stations, between Aug. 23 and Sept. 8.
4th Plea
This marks the fourth time the former president has pleaded not guilty this year: In April, President Trump was charged with allegedly mishandling business documents in New York and pleaded not guilty to 34 counts. In June, he pleaded not guilty to 37 counts in a Florida case prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith over allegedly mishandling classified documents, and pleaded not guilty to an additional three charges in August.
In Washington, D.C., President Trump pleaded not guilty in August in another case prosecuted by Mr. Smith, over his challenge to the 2020 election results. The case is similar to the one in Fulton County, but is being tried in federal court.
The presiding judge, District Judge Tanya Chutkan, has decided on a March 4, 2024 trial date. Notably, it is the same trial date Ms. Willis in Fulton County originally proposed before the Washington date was set.
The Fulton County trial date has not yet been decided by a judge. Ms. Willis had said she intended to try all 19 defendants together, but the defendants have begun severing their cases from one another, citing differences in their schedules.
On Aug. 23, President Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail where he was released on $200,000 bond. Local officials insisted all 19 defendants be treated as any other local criminal, and the first ever mugshot of a President of the United States was taken. The photo was released about an hour afterward, and quickly went viral. The mugshot went up on President Trump’s campaign donation website and social media, including for his first X (formerly Twitter) post since 2021, with the caption “Never Surrender,” and merchandise featuring the mugshot quickly followed.
Ms. Willis’s case rests on the fact that the former president, his attorneys, the alternate electors named, and several others believed that President Trump had lost the election in Georgia in 2020, and “knowingly” acted to overturn a true
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