Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to criminal charges related to his involvement in a sweeping scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia and waived his right to appear at an arraignment scheduled for next week.
“Understanding my rights, I do 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,” the former president said in the court filing presented on Thursday.
The arraignment is set for the morning of Sept. 6 at Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta.
Earlier this month, Trump and 18 of his closest allies were accused in a 41-count indictment brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of coordinating a racketeering scheme, which involved spreading conspiracy theories, pressuring elected officials and propping up fake electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia in a desperate effort to remain in power despite having lost the presidency in a free and fair vote.
The indictment marks the fourth set of criminal charges against Trump, who now faces a cumulative 91 felony counts in New York state court for hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, in federal court in Florida where he’s been accused of mishandling classified documents, and in federal court in the District of Columbia in connection with efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power and incite a violent insurrection at the Capitol and in Georgia.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied wrongdoing in all the cases against him. He continues to repeat unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged and stolen” and that the indictments that followed amount to a witch hunt and election interference. In reality, Trump lost the general election to Biden, and, in Georgia specifically, he lost by some 11,779 votes.
Trump faces 13 criminal charges in Georgia, the most serious of which is violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. That charge alone carries a minimum prison sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of 20 years. Trump also faces a slew of fraud and forgery charges.
Trump, the current front-runner in the GOP presidential primary race, was booked on Aug. 24. The conditions for his release included a $200,000 bond and strict conditions on his social media use. Among other things, he must not violate any laws in Georgia or elsewhere, he must appear in court as directed, he must not communicate about the facts of the case with fellow co-defendants – except through his legal team – and he must not intimidate co-defendants or witnesses.
Willis asked the overseeing Trump’s case, Judge Scott McAfee, to expedite the cases of all 19 defendants, but McAfee has not yet set a date for his trial.
