Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to attempting to illegally reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, according to a court document filed Thursday.
This is the fourth criminal case in which the real estate magnate, favorite in the Republican primaries to take over the White House from his 2020 opponent, current President Joe Biden, has been prosecuted.
A date for his trial in this case has not yet been set. But in another document presented by his lawyer, he officially requested the dissociation from his file of several of the 18 other defendants who opted for a “rapid trial”, scheduled from October, demanding more time to prepare his defense. .
Crying at “electoral interference”, the real estate mogul insists on his desire that these trials be held after the presidential election, scheduled for November 2024.
Summoned on September 6 for his public impeachment in Georgia, Donald Trump, like several other defendants have already done, indicated in the court document that he waived his right to appear before the judge and therefore should not move again. in Atlanta, capital of the state of Georgia.
He had to appear in person last week in an Atlanta prison for the time to be stuck there and to submit to a mug shot, a first for a former American president.
Mr. Trump and 18 other people, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, were charged on August 14 with unlawful attempts to reverse the result of the 2020 election in this key state, won by Joe Biden.
The law on organized crime used by the prosecutor in this case provides for sentences of five to twenty years in prison.
The septuagenarian is also accused in New York of suspicious payments to a former porn actress, and by federal justice of electoral pressure during the 2020 presidential election as well as of negligent management of confidential documents after his departure from the White House.
The former president has pleaded not guilty in all of these cases. He systematically attributes his legal setbacks to the administration of Joe Biden, also a candidate for his own re-election.
The stormy Republican is in any case preparing to experience an extraordinary year 2024, between electoral campaign meetings and criminal trials, in March and May – a calendar which could still evolve.
He protested against the decision of the judge of his trial in federal court in Washington on Monday to set the opening for March 4, 2024, the eve of “Super Tuesday”, one of the most important deadlines of the Republican primaries.
But several political analysts observe that if he confirms in the Republican primaries the phenomenal lead credited to him by the polls, he could already on that date definitively secure his position as the party’s presidential candidate.
Each legal twist brings him millions of dollars in campaign donations, paid by Trumpists convinced that he is the victim of a political cabal.
31/08/2023 21:40:55 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
