Former President Donald Trump and the 18 people indicted along with him in Georgia are scheduled to be arraigned next week on charges they participated in a wide-ranging illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
All 19 defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have been scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 6, when they may enter pleas as well, according to court records. Trump starts off the day with a hearing at 9:30 a.m., with the other arraignments set to follow.
Notices posted Monday by Fulton County court officials said that the defendants “must be present” and that face masks must be worn when entering the courthouse.
A Trump spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a question for comment.
The defendants met a Friday deadline to turn themselves in at the Fulton County Jail. Trump was booked Thursday evening — scowling at the camera in the first-ever mug shot of a former president.
All but one of those charged had agreed to a bond amount and conditions with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ahead of time, and they were free to go after booking.
Harrison William Prescott Floyd, who is accused of harassing a Fulton County election worker, did not negotiate a bond ahead of time and remained in the jail after turning himself in last Thursday. Federal court records from Maryland show Floyd, a former U.S. Marine who’s active with the group Black Voices for Trump, was also arrested three months ago on a federal warrant that accuses him of aggressively confronting two FBI agents sent to serve him with a grand jury subpoena.
An attorney for Floyd, Todd A. Harding, noted in a court filing Monday that his client was the only African American man among the defendants and the only one without bond. Harding asked a judge to set a “reasonable bond” for his client at a bond hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Willis, who used Georgia’s racketeering law to bring the case, alleges that the defendants participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally try to keep the Republican president in power even after his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Meadows is seeking to fight the Georgia indictment in federal court. A hearing on transferring his case there from state court was being held Monday. At least four others charged in the indictment are also seeking to move the case to federal court, including U.S. Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark.
Published - August 29, 2023 06:15 am IST
