Former President Donald Trump will be charged on September 6 at 9:30 a.m. in the Georgia election case, according to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Monday.
Other defendants, including his longtime attorney Rudy Giuliani, who is due to be arraigned at 9:45 a.m., will also be brought before the court that day. After that, at intervals of 15 minutes, the arraignments of the remaining 17 co-defendants will proceed.
In the course of a thorough investigation into the campaign by Trump and his friends to have the results of the 2020 election in the crucial state overturned, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged him with felony racketeering and many conspiracy offenses.
Last Monday, Trump and his co-defendants—who were also accused of racketeering—were lodged at the Fulton County Jail.
Among the defendants in the broad 41-count indictment are Giuliani and Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff. It also includes the names of attorneys John Eastman, Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Kenneth, and Jenna Ellis, as well as Jeffrey Clark, a former employee of the Department of Justice. Among other alleged violations, all of them were accused of breaking Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organization Act.
Trump has claimed that he did nothing improper during the 2020 election and has accused Willis of conducting a “witch hunt” on him because of his political views. Many of his co-defendants have similarly said they did nothing wrong.
The cases of Meadows, Clark, and David Shafer, a so-called fake elector who signed a document erroneously claiming that Trump won the state of Georgia in 2020, are being transferred to federal court. Shafer is also a former state legislator and GOP chair from Georgia.
On Monday, a federal judge in Atlanta heard testimony regarding Meadows’ request to transfer the Fulton County case to federal court. Defendant Clark’s motion to have his case transferred to federal court will be discussed at a hearing set for September 18 by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones.
In Fulton County, the processes for booking and arraignment in criminal matters are distinct. The sheriff’s office mentioned that McAfee may require some arraignments to take place virtually. It’s unknown if Trump will be physically arraigned or by video.
Trump was released from detention following his surrender to Fulton County police last week on pre-arranged terms, which included a $200,000 bond.
The former president must comply with a number of requirements, including one that forbids him from acting in any way that a judge would perceive as an attempt to intimidate co-defendants or witnesses or “otherwise obstruct the administration of justice.”
The court order stated that Trump “shall make no either a direct or indirect threat of any nature” against any co-defendant, witness, victim, community, or property in the community.
The statement read, “The foregoing shall include, but not be limited to, posts on social networking sites or reposts of posts made by other individuals on social media.”
Willis previously requested a March 4 trial date, followed by arraignments the week of September 5. This was before Trump and his co-defendants surrendered last week.
“In light of Defendant Donald John Trump’s other criminal as well as civil matters ongoing in the courts among our sister sovereigns, the State of Georgia offers certain deadlines that are not in conflict with these other courts’ already-scheduled hearings and trial dates,” Willis wrote in a court document this month.
The proposed dates, according to her, take into account the need for defendants to review discovery and prepare for trial, “but also to protect the State of Georgia’s and the public’s interest in quick resolution of the offenses for which the accused have been indicted.”