A judge has ruled that the trial of Donald Trump in Georgia, where he is being accused of election fraud, will be shown live online and on TV.
Judge Scott McAfee said that all the hearings can be watched live on Fulton County Court’s YouTube channel.
A specific date for the trial hasn’t been decided yet, but it might happen next year while Mr. Trump is seeking to be re-elected.
Mr Trump and 18 other individuals are accused of planning together to change the results of the 2020 presidential election in their state.
The previous Republican president is currently dealing with multiple criminal trials. In one of these trials, he has entered a plea of not guilty to a total of 13 charges in Georgia.
The events that happen in Fulton County’s courts are usually shown live on a video streaming service.
But, only one of Mr. Trump’s four trials will be shown on TV, and it might be one of the most popular trials in recent times.
Last week, Mr. Trump went to Atlanta for a short time to go to Fulton County Jail and have his photo taken. He decided not to go to court on Wednesday for his arraignment, which is a quick hearing where the plea is officially given in court.
The prosecutors claim that he forced Georgia officials to change the election results in the state because he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The main point of the prosecution’s argument is that he called the secretary of state of the state to ask for the vote count to be redone.
“I simply want to locate 11,780 votes,” he can be heard saying on a recording of the call.
Trump said the phone call was “perfect” and his lawyers who were listening did not have any worries.
The person who used to own a lot of buildings in New York, is currently the leading candidate to be chosen as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2024. Despite facing legal issues, his popularity with his followers has not been affected.
He believes that the legal cases in Georgia and the other three criminal cases against him are motivated by politics.
Some of the people who were accused with him in Georgia, like his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have stated that they will choose not to go to court next week.
Clark Cunningham, who teaches law at Georgia State University, said that the decision is usually not a topic of debate and disagreement.
“According to him, Mr. Trump is fully aware of the accusations against him,” he explained. The main goal of the arraignment is to tell the accused person what charges they are facing and ask them how they plead. He doesn’t have to be present because he already knows what they are.
He and the people he did bad things with are accused of racketeering, which is also called the Rico act.
In the US, both at the national level, Rico laws are used to assist prosecutors in linking lower level offenders who committed a crime with those who instructed them or planned the criminal activity.