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Story · September 5, 2023

Georgia Case Is One Day From Scheduled Arraignments

By The Daily Fuckup Newsroom · From Trump World’s September 5, 2023 Scoreboard: Courts, Arraignments, and a Fresh Front in the 2020 Fallout

Georgia arraignment Confidence 5/5
Climate Courts DOJ Elections Media
★★★☆☆Fuckup rating 3/5
Major mess Ranked from 1 to 5 stars based on the scale of the screwup and fallout.
Correction: Correction: This story referred to the Sept. 6 Fulton County arraignments as an upcoming scheduled step. The Sept. 6 hearing had not yet occurred on Sept. 5.

The Fulton County election case was one day away from scheduled arraignments on Sept. 6, 2023, after court filings set the timetable in the racketeering case brought over efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential result. The filings on the court docket showed the next step was already on the calendar, even as lawyers continued to litigate how the case should move forward. ([fultonclerk.org](https://www.fultonclerk.org/DocumentCenter/View/2141/GENERAL-RULE-22-REQUEST-AND-ORDER-08-31-2023-111042-39204387-E1AB7189-5BA0-4BC3-80CB-073CC58ABD32))

The immediate issue was not whether the case existed. It did. The question was how the defendants would enter their pleas and whether Donald Trump would personally show up in court. The record available on Sept. 5 showed a scheduled arraignment date, not a hearing that had already unfolded. Trump’s lawyer had already been pressing the court on scheduling and severance issues, underscoring that the case was still in active pretrial motion practice. ([fultonclerk.org](https://www.fultonclerk.org/DocumentCenter/View/2146/RESPONSE-08-31-2023-111042-39231268-8192813A-C4E3-4ABE-AF0D-01859CF730E7))

Trump did not have to appear in person if he waived arraignment, which made the date important as a procedural marker rather than a guaranteed in-court moment for him. The underlying charges remained the same: prosecutors accused Trump and co-defendants of taking part in an effort to reverse the outcome in Georgia after the vote was certified. What Sept. 5 represented was simply the day before the court was set to take the next scheduled step. ([fultonclerk.org](https://www.fultonclerk.org/DocumentCenter/View/2141/GENERAL-RULE-22-REQUEST-AND-ORDER-08-31-2023-111042-39204387-E1AB7189-5BA0-4BC3-80CB-073CC58ABD32))

The timing also put the case squarely inside a presidential campaign year, adding another legal deadline to Trump’s already crowded calendar. But the docket itself did not need commentary. It was already set for Sept. 6, and the case was waiting for the date to arrive. ([fultonclerk.org](https://www.fultonclerk.org/DocumentCenter/View/2141/GENERAL-RULE-22-REQUEST-AND-ORDER-08-31-2023-111042-39204387-E1AB7189-5BA0-4BC3-80CB-073CC58ABD32))

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