The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
19 enter not guilty pleas, waive arraignments
Judge to hear motions by two defendants to sever cases today.
All 19 defendants who were indicted in Fulton County last month on election interference-related charges have pleaded not guilty and waived their arraignments that had been scheduled before a superior court judge on Wednesday.
That means there won’t be any circus-like courtroom appearances — at least not in the near future — for former President Donald Trump, ex-new York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others who are accused of conspiring to reverse Georgia’s 2020 elec- tion results. The defendants were indicted on racketeering and a combined 40 fel- ony counts on Aug. 14
Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott Mcafee, who is overseeing the case, had scheduled all of the arraign- ments in 15-minute increments throughout the day on Wednesday. But one by one, the defendants waived their right to the appearance, which is permissible under Georgia law and was expected given that most live out of state.
Arraignments are when defendants appear before a judge for the first time to formally hear the charges against them and enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. The pro- cess is designed, in part, to ensure the defendant knows his or her rights. Judges often set additional court dates at arraignments, such as dead- lines for pretrial motions and a trial date.
With no defendants set to appear in person, MCA- fee scheduled a hearing for Wednesday afternoon on motions filed by two defen- dants, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, to separate out — or sever — their por- tions of the case from the other defendants.
The judge asked the Ful- ton District Attorney’s office to provide a “good-faith esti- mate” of how long it will take for the state to present its case if all 19 co-defendants are tried together or sepa- rately, including the num- ber of witnesses likely to be called and the number and size of exhibits likely to be introduced.
The order suggested that Mcafee hasn’t ruled out the request from DA Fani Wil- lis to try all 19 defendants together. He had previously set an Oct. 23 trial date for Chesebro, who demanded a speedy trial. Powell has also issued a similar demand.
On Tuesday, Chesebro’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the seven charges filed against their client, citing the Constitution’s Suprem- acy Clause. Also on Tuesday, attorneys for co-defendant John Eastman filed a motion to sever his case from Chese- bro and Powell, citing sched- uling conflicts and the large amount of documents the DA’S office is expected to hand over as part of discovery.
“Proceeding to trial in a major RICO case six weeks after indictment obviously does not give sufficient time to prepare for trial,” Eastman’s attorneys argued. “Such a con- clusion should be apparent on the fact of it without the need for sophisticated legal analysis.”
Trump similarly asked that his portion of the case to be severed last week. His attorney argued that hav- ing two months to mount a legal defense “would vio- late President Trump’s fed- eral and state constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process of law.”
In the days ahead, the Ful- ton DA’S office is slated to hand over its first batch of discov- ery documents to defen- dants’ attorneys. Superior Court Judge Robert Mcburney, who oversaw the first part of the elections investigation, is separately expected to release the final report of the special grand jury that helped Willis compile evidence last year.
And all eyes are on U.S. Dis- trict Court Judge Steve Jones, who last week heard argu- ments from former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, another co-defen- dant who is hoping to move the case from Fulton to fed- eral court.
If Jones rules in Meadows’ favor, it’s possible that the case for all 19 defendants moves to federal court, which could considerably alter case logis- tics. Atlanta federal court, unlike Fulton Court, gener- ally doesn’t allow cameras.