Former President and current Republican candidate for the White House, Donald Trump, will plead not guilty at the hearing on Thursday on the case of the tycoon’s attempts to overturn the electoral results of the 2020 election, which he has decided not to attend.
“I, President Donald Trump, the aforementioned defendant, hereby waive my right to be present at the arraignment and authorize my attorneys to enter a not guilty plea on my behalf to each and every charge in the superseding indictment. I further declare that I have received a copy of the superseding indictment and have reviewed it with my attorney,” Trump said in a document delivered to the court and picked up by the CNN television network.
The tycoon’s legal team is planning to attend the first one since the trial was paused so the Supreme Court could determine the scope of Trump’s presidential immunity.
It is also worth noting that last week, special prosecutor Jack Smith rewrote his indictment, maintaining the four charges – conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against the rights of citizens – but revising some of the conduct to circumvent the limits imposed by the Supreme Court.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, for her part, will have to decide how to proceed with the criminal case on efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including setting a timetable, and establishing whether prosecutors can bring Trump to trial and call certain witnesses, such as former Vice President Mike Pence.
The Supreme Court ruled in early July that Trump enjoyed immunity as president, but ruled out that this was total, which opened the door for the courts to study in detail which of the alleged crimes attributed to the former president were committed under the umbrella of a presidential office and which were not.
Trump, who has several judicial fronts open, had already declared himself innocent of the charges related to this case, for which there is no precise timetable. On the near horizon are already the presidential elections in November, in which the tycoon will try to return to the White House as the standard-bearer of the Republican Party.
