2023-08-17 02:15:00
Prosecutors have requested that the trial begin on March 4, 2024 following the indictment of former US President Donald Trump on election conspiracy charges in the state of Georgia. Chief Prosecutor Fani Willis submitted a proposal for the timing of further proceedings to the competent court in Georgia’s capital Atlanta on Wednesday. Accordingly, Trump and the 18 other defendants are due to appear in court for the first time in the week beginning September 5th.
Numerous other procedural steps follow – including deadlines for submitting certain applications – up to the start of the process, which is aimed for at the beginning of March. However, Trump’s lawyers are likely to insist on a later start of the process. The decision is then made by a judge.
Trump was indicted on Monday in Atlanta on 13 counts for his attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. It was the fourth indictment against the ex-president and leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election — and the second indictment involving the 2020 election.
Charge under the RICO Act
Prosecutor Willis uses the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a law originally intended to combat organized crime, in her action against Trump. Along with the ex-president, his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani are among those charged. The defendants have until Friday next week to appear in Georgia justice.
According to media reports, Trump’s lawyers and the prosecutor’s office in Atlanta discussed the relevant modalities on Wednesday. The sheriff of Fulton County, which includes large parts of Atlanta, said on Tuesday that the identification of the 19 accused in the case would probably take place in the Atlanta county jail.
After the three previous charges against Trump in New York, Miami and Washington, the ex-president’s identification service and the first court hearing always took place on the same day. In Georgia, however, these dates will take place on different days.
Three previous charges
Trump was charged in New York at the end of March in the affair over a hush money payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. In June, federal indictments followed over the classified documents affair that Trump took from the White House to his luxury Mar-a-Lago estate at the end of his term in early 2021. At the beginning of August, the 77-year-old was also accused by the federal judiciary of illegally influencing the outcome of the 2022 election.
Trump has denied the allegations of illegal electoral interference and described the investigation as politically motivated. To this day, the ex-president claims that he only drew attention to election fraud in favor of his rival Joe Biden in 2020 – even though courts, authorities and experts have often rejected and refuted allegations of massive election fraud.
Trump has announced a press conference at his golf club in the state of New Jersey for Monday, at which he will present a report on alleged voter fraud in Georgia. The right-wing populist has said the report’s findings should lead to the charges against him being dropped in the southern state.
The Georgia trial could be particularly uncomfortable and dangerous for Trump. Among other things, the trial – unlike the other trials against the ex-president – could be broadcast live on television.
A comment by Andreas Ross Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 23 Sofia Dreisbach, Washington Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 71 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 11
And while a federal conviction could see Trump attempting to pardon himself if he wins the 2024 presidential election, a Georgia conviction would not. The President’s fundamental right to pardons applies only to the federal judiciary, not to the state level.
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