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FORMER US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty 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 scheduled for Wednesday next week.
That means he will not have to show up for an arraignment hearing that Fulton County Superior Court judge Scott McAfee had set for next week.
The decision to skip an in-person appearance averts the dramatic arraignments that have accompanied the three other criminal cases Trump faces, in which the former president has been forced amid tight security into a courtroom and entered “not guilty” pleas before crowds of spectators.
Trump and 18 others were charged earlier this month in a 41-count indictment that outlines an alleged scheme to subvert the will of Georgia voters who had chosen Democrat Joe Biden over the Republican incumbent in the presidential election.
Several other people charged in the indictment had already waived arraignment in filings with the court, saving them a trip to the courthouse in downtown Atlanta.
Trump previously travelled to Georgia on 24 August to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail, where he became the first former president to have a mugshot taken.
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The case, filed under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, is sprawling, and the logistics of bringing it to trial are likely to be complicated.
Legal manoeuvring by several of those charged has already begun.
At least two defendants have filed demands for a speedy trial and have asked to be tried separately from others in the case.
The judge has set an 23 October trial date for one of them, Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who worked on the co-ordination and execution of a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate falsely stating that Trump won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis has said she wants all of the defendants tried together, and she asked the judge to set an 23 October trial date for everyone.
Trump’s lawyer Steve Sadow has said in court filings that he objects to that date and plans to file a motion to separate Trump’s case from that of anyone who files a speedy trial demand.
Some of the others charged are trying to move their cases to federal court.
A judge on Monday heard arguments on such a request by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, but the judge did not immediately rule.
Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has criticised the cases against him as part of a politically motivated attempt to keep him from winning back the White House.
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@Hank Scorpio: What crimes did this Hunter Biden commit?
Apart from being the son of the current president?
A person who is not in government.
Unlike the Trump “administration” who brought all and sundry into positions where they could “benefit”.
Kushner alone got $2 billion from the ME in one deal.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: really what crime last did Hunter Biden commit? The ones where his sweetheart deal was thrown out by the judge when she seen how sweet it actually was? The tax fraud? That one? Living about being a drug user when buying a gun? That one? Or when that gun was thrown in a skip, a skip across from a school? Will you take that as “what crimes”?
@mainmsam: Lets remember Hunter Biden is not running to become the next President or has a desire to become a Politican, However to counter…
A sweetheart deal is a crime?
Tax fraud? It was a tax crime by failing to pay his tax on time (Like millions of other Americans)
His sister in law/lover threw the gun in a trash can,
But dont let facts get in your way while you talk about some ordinary everyday American citizen.
(Well what about his laptop/Hillarys emails) Blah blah blah.
@mainmsam:
1) There was no tax fraud.
There was a charge of late filing of taxes. Which I believe is classed as a misdemeanour in the US.
2) Although he had signed a form when purchasing a gun that stated he was not a drug user, that charge is no longer valid. It is no longer valid because a recent appeals court case – a different case with different people – found that law to be unconstitutional.
They were the only charges against him.
Charges brought by a Republican investigator, and investigator appointed by Trump.
The investigation was so flawed, the investigator “dirtied his bib” so much that apparently the plea deal should not have been agreed to by Hunter.
But Fox wont tell you about these things.
Instead they will manufacture outrage among the gullible.
Now, about that $2 billion given to Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband…
@mainmsam: The deal that dealt with the misdemenour of filing taxes late?
Yea, that’ll send him up the river for life.
But here’s the thing – if Hunter Biden has committed offenses, then he should be held accountable.
That’s the way it should be.
Don’t you agree?
Just as EVERYONE who commit offenses should be held accountable.
Don’t you agree?
Let’s assume that Hunter Biden did all those things that the RWNJs say he did.
He should be investigated, and evidence for criminality should be presented to a jury, and a jury allowed to come to a verdict.
Don’t you agree?
Now, why wont you accept the same for the Trumps?
Jared Kushner got $2 billion from the ME.
Can you agree that warrants investigation?
Can you agree that that is an elephant compared to ANYTHING Hunter Biden has been accused of?
And that is only 1 of the many, many downright shady deals pulled off by that family.
So, don’t you agree that the entire Trump clan’s activities warrant the closest scrutiny?
After all, they were in positions where abuses of power could bring them great wealth.
Now, when you finish trying to come up with an excuse why the Trumps are somehow immune, please go look up Manafort, Parnas, and their plans with the russians to smear the Bidens to assist Trump, the russian asset.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: anyone who does wrong should be investigated no doubt about it. Sweetheart deals that clear you for life don’t & should not come into it though. The DOJ are up to their necks in this with fingers in plenty of pies. Pies that belong to their boss
@mainmsam: That sweetheart deal that concerns you was done by a Republican prosecutor appointed by Trump to ‘get’ Hunter Biden, by hook or by crook.
It seems he chose the latter course, which has landed him in hot water.
But we shall see where this goes.
Unlike the Trump DOJ which DID interfere with investigations, there is no evidence that Biden has done anything other than have a hands-off approach to the DOJ, which is the way it is supposed to be.
Are you really trying to suggest that the agencies responsible for investigating crime in the US should ignore crime, crime that was committed in broad daylight, under our noses?
Or are you trying to suggest that Republicans are above the law?
They have conducted investigations. They have uncovered evidence. They have presented that evidence to grand juries. They have given the suspects of their investigations the chances to show the grand juries why they should not be indicted. The grand juries have issued indictments – note, not any justice department, but grand juries examining evidence have determined there are prima facia cases for indictments.
And juries of ordinary people will in due course reach verdicts.
That is the way it is supposed to be, it is not?
Or do you believe that Republicans should be above the law?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: point out where I said anyone is above the law. You’ve already asked me that & it’s been answered. Hunter Biden, according to whistleblowers has had the DOJ’s arm around him for some time. The special counsel was only appointed after the whistleblower came forward
@mainmsam: The whistle blower that had no evidence when questioned by congress?
The DOJ is not involved in the investigation of Hunter Biden. That task was passed to a special prosecutor appointed by Trump, as you should know.
That special prosecutor seems to have breached the law in his investigations.
Your replies make it quite clear that you do not want to see Trump and his minions prosecuted. That means that you believe they should be above the law.
Yet you want people not connected with government prosecuted, prosecuted for misdemeanours, while wanting those that committed gross violations to go free of any consequences.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I was a guy who was going around Europe collecting bags of cash on his fathers name to face his tax charges & then wait on the can of worms that opens up. If you don’t take your blinkers off you will actually fall over
Don’t you know Fox has been sued many times for the lies it tells?
Don’t you know the defense they have used, and were successful with until recently – that ‘no reasonable person would believe what they broadcast’?
A defense that a judge agreed with.
So, from a court ruling in the US, anyone who believes what Fox (and by extension those others who propagate the same lies) says is not a reasonable person.
That is not me saying that – that is a ruling from a US court.
But it is up to you whether you want to live a life of lies.
Or whether you want to make the lives of others better, or at least less bad.
And improve your own well being as a result.
Even with the phonecall recorded and blatantly showing Trump trying out every tactic to produce an end vote total in his favour…….there will be many who still refuse to accept he is guilty….even though the prosecution’s star witness will be Donald J. Trump! Try this out: Joe Biden is discovered to have done exactly the same and we have the recording to prove it! Is Joe Biden guilty? There just isn’t a single neuron in the average Trump supporter’s brain that can accept objectivity.
@Numinous20111: Fortunately VP Harris can ignore any state appointed electors who declare Biden did not win every state in 2024. False electors can be substituted instead to declare Biden the victor. This is completely legitimate and necessary per Trump in 2020.
How long are we going to have to suffer Trump? Regardless of your politics, the man is pretty detestable. Can’t the US just have 2 regular candidates from both the Republicans and Democrats, candidates who have at least the semblance of treating others with respect and dignity, regardless of policy? Cut Biden loose, as well. He’s too old for the job, clearly. Get some younger blood in the race and give us all a break from fighting with each other about unimportant distractions (mostly about Trump).
@mainmsam: He’s an unusual character. A little out there, especially on his poorly researched stance on vaccines and their links to autism but let’s see how he gets on!
ck to facts There are no alternative facts as the great make America grim again crowd believe America for thick white supremists and their Great Orange God isn’t the land of the free and the brave its a nightmare where truth is meaningless if a lie sound bite is easier ….
Let’s not forget let gods justice take its course after all hes my man’s only judge, come back whine moan then. , I think deep down don hearts is clean, trump 24 yes sir let ya all choke on ur cups of tea then haha
Given the stiff sentences to the Proudboys, this is building up to a very interesting process, & likely very tense for the leading lights yet to be brought to account. Hopefully, it does not descend into disturbance & disgrace for US justice & democracy.
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