Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, denied any wrongdoing in response to criminal charges that were revised in a federal indictment on Thursday. The indictment accuses him of attempting to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election. His legal representatives submitted the not guilty plea on his behalf during a court session in Washington. The hearing is centred on the progress of the case following a judicial decision made by the US supreme court. The court ruled that former presidents enjoy vast immunity from being crimically prosecuted.
Mr Trump, the Republican nominee in the presidential election scheduled for November 5th, was absent from the hearing. The revised indictment, which was issued in August, retained the initial four charges detailed in an indictment obtained last year by Special Counsel Jack Smith. However, it no longer contains allegations that the supreme court determined couldn’t remain part of the case.
It’s expected that US district judge Tanya Chutkan will scrutinise the conflicting proposals from Mr Smith, who’s keen to advance the case, and Mr Trump, who advocates for delaying the proceedings until after the election. The supreme court instructed Ms Chutkan to establish whether any other portions of the case should be eliminated.
Mr Trump is accused of putting forward unfounded allegations of electoral fraud in an effort to destabilise the election results and obstruct confirmation of his loss to the Democratic President, Joe Biden. Earlier proceedings were held up for a number of months while Mr Trump claimed immunity. The case is highly unlikely to reach trial before Mr Trump is up against Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris in the election.
Mr Trump contends that the prosecution and various other legal cases against him are politically-charged attempts designed to cripple his presidential bid. A 6-3 ruling in July by the supreme court declared that former presidents are generally considered to enjoy immunity from criminal charges for acts performed while in office.
Mr Smith maintains that the outstanding allegations do not fall under the immunity provision and can be trialled. The prosecution team has signalled their readiness to submit their argument in court documents “whenever the court sees fit”. Conversely, Mr Trump’s legal team proposes that Ms Chutkan should only evaluate the repercussions of the immunity decision in December, post-election.
Should Mr Trump be victorious in the election, it’s anticipated that he would instruct the justice department to dismiss the charges. Furthermore, Mr Trump suggests his lawyers should initially seek to dismiss the case by contending that the appointment of Mr Smith as special counsel breaches the US constitution.
Mr Trump utilised a similar dispute to persuade a Florida-based federal judge, whom he himself had appointed, to discard another criminal charge against him. This was spearheaded by Mr Smith, who alleged that Trump illegally retained classified files upon his departure from office. An appeal against this judgement is currently being instituted by Mr Smith’s office. Established precedent from the Washington federal appeals court has consistently ratified the power of special counsels to oversee certain delicate inquiries. – Reuters