Trump’s co-defendants join him in skipping Georgia RICO case arraignment
Ashley Oliver
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Former President Donald Trump and several of his 18 co-defendants named in a racketeering indictment in Georgia have pleaded not guilty and waived their arraignment appearances, which were scheduled for next week.
Trump, who is facing 13 felonies for his alleged illegal attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, entered his plea on Thursday.
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He and the 18 others had arraignments scheduled for Sept. 6, but per a standing order filed this month by Judge Scott McAfee in Fulton County Superior Court, defendants are able to waive their arraignments and enter not-guilty pleas in lieu of physically appearing at the court.
They must submit a waiver “no later than 48 hours prior to the hearing date” to be excused from appearing, according to McAfee’s order.
Below is a list of those who have filed such waivers as of Friday evening:
Donald Trump Kenneth Chesebro Michael Roman Ray Smith Sidney Powell Harrison Floyd Robert David Cheeley Scott Hall Jenna Ellis Trevian Kutti Rudy Giuliani
In addition to filing waivers, co-defendants in the case, as well as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, have filed a number of different motions, resulting in a tangled web of requests that both McAfee and U.S. District Judge Steve Jones have been tasked with sorting out.
Powell and Chesebro are seeking speedy trials, which McAfee set for Oct. 23. Chesebro, however, also requested not to be tried with Powell, and Trump has requested to sever his case from both of them to avoid the October trial date, which his attorney said would not allow Trump due process.
Smith filed a motion on Friday to sever all of the defendants’ cases into unspecified groups to be determined once they were able to review discovery in the case.
Smith’s attorney wrote in his motion that the case involves “too many disparate predicate acts, too many prosecution witnesses, and a complex array of relationships of all the witnesses and defendants for the jury to comprehend.”
Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and four others are aiming to move their cases from state to federal court, and Trump and others could attempt to do the same.
Meadows was the first to file for federal removal and the first to have a hearing on it, which took place Monday in Atlanta.
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Meadows testified for hours as a witness at the hearing, arguing that any actions he took that are now being held against him in the indictment are actions he took under the color of his official position as chief of staff.
Jones is expected to make a ruling on Meadows’s motion soon, and the decision will carry significant weight because it will indicate how others could fare with the same removal attempt.