Former President Donald Trump and 18 others will be arraigned in an Atlanta court next month on election interference charges. File Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI |
License Photo
Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Former President Donald Trump will be arraigned on criminal charges in Georgia on Sept. 6 in connection with efforts to illegally overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results, a Fulton County court docket said.
Trump and 18 others will be arraigned that day in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta. Trump faces 13 felony counts in the case, tied to an effort to falsely change the election results.
Judge Scott McAfee will hear the co-defendants in the sweeping election racketeering case one at a time starting with Trump at 9:30 a.m., EDT, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 9:45 a.m. Misty Hampton will be the last defendant to face McAfee at 3 p.m.
Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows is expected to enter his plea at 10:30 a.m. despite his continued efforts to get his case moved to federal court.
Monday's revelation in Atlanta was just one of the legal wranglings faced by the former president on Monday. In the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump's proposal to hold his criminal election interference trial in 2026 and scheduled the trial to begin March 4.
Chutkan, though, said she would also reject the prosecution's effort to fast-track to case to be heard in five months as well, possibly putting that trial in the middle of election season in 2024, when Trump faces legal hearings as well.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading Trump's prosecution in his two federal cases -- the classified documents case in Florida along with the election interference trial in D.C. -- has suggested that the latter should start Jan. 2.
Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump is pictured in this photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office in Atlanta on August 24, 2023. Trump surrendered on a 13-count indictment for efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Photo courtesy of Fulton County Sheriff's Office/UPI |
License Photo