Trump pleads NOT GUILTY in Georgia election subversion case – avoiding face-to-face court appearance and televised judge confrontation
- A Trump attorney made the plea in a dossier signed by Trump
- He is indicted ahead of eighteen other defendants on alleged racketeering conspiracy charges
- Trump continues to distribute images of his mug shot
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in Georgia’s election interference case.
The former president waived his right to arraignment next week.
“I hereby freely and voluntarily waive my right to be present at my arraignment on the indictment and my right to have it read to me in open court,” Trump said in a filing filed by his local attorney.
Trump famously signed the “not guilty plea.”
The move comes a week after he posed for his historic mug shot, which became a global media event.
Trump’s campaign continued marketing the frowning image on Thursday, seeking contributions and offering signed posters.
“President Trump’s unmistakable mugshot, taken as an innocent man, has become a symbol of an UNBREAKABLE MOVEMENT that triumphs over tyranny!” according to the fundraising application.
Former President Donald Trump has entered a not guilty plea in Fulton County, Georgia through a legal filing. It comes after he showed up in person to get his mug shot done. Trump is indicted along with 18 other defendants in a grand jury indictment, accusing them of a racketeering conspiracy surrounding his attempt to overturn the election results there.
The move comes two days after “Kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell, who promoted Trump’s voter fraud allegations in press conferences and legal documents, made her own plea not guilty.
Trump allies Trevian Kutti and Ray Smith also waived formal charges and entered not guilty pleas this week. They were among 19 people charged with conspiracy and extortion this month.
Smith is an attorney who has represented Trump on state election law issues. Kutti is accused of harassing an election official.
Trump’s plea comes amid uncertainty over how the case will proceed, with multiple defendants seeking to “separate” their case from the general prosecution, which Fulton County DA has brought under a state RICO statute.
Powell is one of those who wants to separate her own case and get a speedy trial.
The Georgia case is just one of the legal problems facing Trump. On Monday, a federal judge in Washington DC set a March 4 trial date for the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith through his Jan. 6 investigation.
Trump entered the not guilty plea with his famous signature
Trump’s web of legal troubles continue to intersect. He had an important hearing in a court in Washington, DC. His statement regarding a civil fraud case in New York was unsealed on Wednesday
Trump’s decision to enter his plea through a dossier avoids the high-profile media event surrounding his police photo.
For that event, which Trump had hyped in advance and scheduled for the day after the first Republican presidential debate, Trump was jailed in an Atlanta jail, speaking to reporters before flying out of the city on his privately modified Boeing 757.
On Wednesday, he erupted on social media, lashing out at enemies, including his former Attorney General Bill Barr, who echoed some of Trump’s concerns about ballot risks during his term, but then turned against the House Committee on Deputies on Jan. 6 testified that many of Trump’s legal team’s allegations of massive election fraud were “bull****” as well as “fake” and “absolute bullshit.”
Trump erupted on social media in the hours before the plea, posting another article calling his prosecution in Georgia a “political blow.”
“Does anyone really believe I lost Georgia? NOT ME!’ Trump said, doubling what the indictment alleges were false statements by Trump and his alleged co-conspiracies to create the illusion of stolen elections to change the outcome of the vote.
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