Trump pleads not guilty to fresh 2020 election interference charges

Washington: Former US president Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to fresh criminal charges accusing him of attempting to overturn the 2020 election, as he prepares to be sentenced this month for fraudulently covering up a sex scandal.

With two months until election day, lawyers for the Republican presidential nominee entered the plea in Washington on Thursday (Friday AEST) at the start of a hearing to determine how the election interference case should proceed after the US Supreme Court ruled that presidents should be immune from prosecution for official acts.

Donald Trump listens to a question during a campaign event at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.Credit: AP

The new charges formed part of a superseding indictment lodged by Special Counsel Jack Smith last month to account for the immunity ruling.

On the other side of the country, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter faced his own legal woes.

In a surprise move, he pleaded guilty to evading $US1.4 million ($2 million) worth of taxes over four years while pulling in millions of dollars from foreign entities.

Hunter’s plea was made moments before a jury was set to be empanelled in the trial. He had initially planned to plead not guilty by arguing he did not intend to break the law, in part, due to his well-documented drug and alcohol addiction.

President Joe Biden and son Hunter in June.Credit: AP

The guilty plea avoids a potentially embarrassing trial weeks before the US election, for a presidential son who was already facing potential jail time after being convicted in June of lying on a federal form about his then-drug addiction in order to buy a gun in 2018.

Judge Mark Scarsi told Hunter Biden he faces up to 17 years in prison and up to $US450,000 in penalties, and set sentencing for December 16.

The split screen court cases served as a reminder of a historic election year that is playing out in the courtroom as well as the campaign trail.

Later this month, Trump is due to be sentenced in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, which could have derailed his chances of becoming president in 2016.

Trump insists he is innocent, and has sought to throw out the case based on the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.

“There is no crime. I did nothing wrong,” he wrote in capital letters on his Truth Social platform, demanding that a gag order issued during the six-week hush money trial be dropped by Judge Juan Merchan. “Witch Hunt. Release the gag order!!!”

Trump was not in Washington as his lawyers issued the plea and sought to delay Smith’s election interference trial, in which he has been accused of trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, which led to the deadly attack at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in North Hampton, New Hampshire on Wednesday.Credit: AP

Trump was in Manhattan delivering an economic policy speech to business leaders, in which he called for the creation of a government efficiency commission – an idea that was pitched to him by billionaire businessman Elon Musk.

He also promised to eliminate a minimum of 10 existing government regulations for every new regulation added under his administration. He also reiterated his push for sweeping corporate tax cuts and tariffs on all imports to the US, including a 60 per cent tariff on imports from China and a 10 per cent across-the-board tariff on imports from other nations.

“By contrast, comrade [Democratic presidential nominee Vice President] Kamala Harris wants to sacrifice our wealth, kill the economy and drive jobs overseas,” he told the Economic Club of New York.

Trump’s speech came a day after Harris also revealed plans to scale back one of Biden’s economic policy proposals. Instead of taxing the investment earnings of Americans making more than $US1 million a year at a 39.6 per cent rate as the president has suggested, Harris called for a 28 per cent rate.

By comparison, Trump’s marquee tax-cut bill dropped the corporate income tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent, and on Thursday he vowed to drop it to 15 per cent for companies that make their product in America.

Polls show the economy, along with immigration, are the top two issues for voters in this year’s election.

In a blow to Trump, however, Goldman Sachs predicted this week that the US economy would be better under Harris than him, arguing that, if Democrats won the White House and the Congress, their spending initiatives and tax credits would “more than offset” the hit to investment caused by the 28 per cent corporate income tax rate.

Conversely, the firm wrote in an analysis on Tuesday, “we estimate that if Trump wins in a sweep or with divided government, the hit to growth from tariffs and tighter immigration policy would outweigh the positive fiscal impulse”.

With Reuters

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