The Daily Fuckup

Mark Meadows and John Eastman were among the defendants who filed written not-guilty pleas in the Fulton County election-interference case on September 5, 2023, and both waived arraignment. Court filings showed that with those submissions, all 19 defendants in the case had now waived arraignment and entered not-guilty pleas.

The filings were a routine procedural step, not a ruling on the charges. Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, and Eastman, a lawyer who advised Donald Trump and his allies, are both charged in the Georgia racketeering case over efforts prosecutors say were aimed at overturning Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state.

The pleas set the case up for later motion practice and scheduling decisions, including the handling of pretrial disputes and potential trial timing. Several other defendants had filed similar pleas before September 5, and the day’s paperwork finished the arraignment-waiver process for the full group.

The case itself remained unchanged by the filings: the defendants denied the charges, and prosecutors still had to prove their allegations in court. But the docket now reflected a complete set of not-guilty pleas from everyone named in the Fulton County indictment.