Former US president Donald Trump along with 18 other defendants in the election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, have pleaded not guilty and have waived their arraignments, new court filings revealed on Tuesday.
According to CNN, Misty Hampton, the last holdout in District Attorney Fani Willis' case, entered her plea in connection to the Coffee County voting system breach on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the other 19 defendants have also entered their pleas while arraignment hearings are scheduled for Wednesday in Atlanta. According to Georgia law, defendants are permitted to waive in-person appearances and enter a not-guilty plea through court paperwork.
Mark Meadows, the chief of staff at the White House, has been accused of two state crimes. These charges include violating Georgia's anti-racketeering RICO law and soliciting a public official to break their oath.
The accusations stem mainly from a phone call in January 2021, where former president Donald Trump and Meadows encouraged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn the election results.
Meadows is attempting to move his case from state to federal court, potentially dismissing the indictment by invoking immunity that shields federal workers from litigation.
At a high-stakes hearing in August, Meadows testified under oath, claiming the alleged actions were related to his duties as Trump's chief of staff. However, the federal judge has not yet issued a ruling on the matter.
Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, has pleaded not guilty in the Georgia court case. Clark who is a senior Trump appointee, attempted to overturn the 2020 election by drafting a letter promoting false claims of voting irregularities and urging Georgia lawmakers to consider throwing out Biden's legitimate electors.
He lobbied Trump to make him the acting attorney general to send the letter and have the Justice Department intervene in the Georgia election. However, Trump chose not to put Clark in charge after other senior Justice Department officials threatened to resign.
Pro-Trump attorney John Eastman, Georgia state Senator Shawn Still, former Coffee County GOP Chair Cathy Latham and former Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer have also been indicted for various crimes related to the 2021 Electoral College, CNN reported.
Eastman was indicted on nine counts, including a racketeering charge, for promoting a six-step plan for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn Joe Biden's victory.
Still was one of 16 Republicans who served as "fake electors" in Georgia, signing paperwork falsely claiming Trump won the Peach State. Still was charged with seven state crimes. Latham was indicted on 11 counts related to an alleged plot to access voter data and ballot-counting equipment in Coffee County and was also indicted for racketeering.
Georgian politician Shafer has been charged with eight state crimes by Fulton County prosecutors for his role in organising fake electors in Georgia, allegedly to subvert the Electoral College.
Shafer served as a fake elector and convened 15 fake electors in December 2020, signing a certificate falsely stating Trump won the state over Biden. He claims the scheme was directed by Trump and the campaign. Shafer and Latham are also seeking to move their cases from state to federal court.
Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County, who is overseeing the Georgia election subversion case, has set a hearing for Wednesday to discuss concerns regarding the trial's timeline and the possibility of splitting the case up.
An important scheduling question will be discussed at Wednesday's hearing at 1pm ET, according to an order posted by McAfee on Tuesday. This is McAfee's first hearing in the matter, and it will likely be shown on television.
The judge stated that if the case is broken up into smaller groups of defendants, he'll want prosecutors to provide him with a "good-faith estimate" of how long it will take to have separate trials for each of the 19 defendants.
While Kenneth Chesebro’s trial is scheduled to begin on October 23, Willis wants to keep the case together and hold one massive trial beginning that day which has been opposed by Trump, and many of the defendants have requested to break up the case.
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