Trump cancels press conference to refute Georgia claims against him

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Donald Trump has abruptly cancelled his proposed news conference at which he claimed he was going to unveil a report that would clear him of any wrongdoing and charges he tried to interfere with the presidential election in Georgia.

The former president took to Truth Social on Thursday evening to say that he would not be going through with the Friday media event – scheduled for 11am est – at the advice of his lawyers.

“Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta. Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Mr Trump had vowed to hold the press conference after being indicted this week on 13 felony counts in Georgia, where he and members of his campaign sought to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election and prove baseless claims of voter and election fraud.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office is overseeing the prosecution of the former president in Georgia, has given Mr Trump a surrender date of no later than 25 August.

That would likely see Mr Trump and the other defendants appear in court in Atlanta during the week of 5 September.

The district attorney’s office has proposed a 4 March trial date for Mr Trump, which would be just one day is one day before Super Tuesday, in which voters in more than a dozen states cast their primary votes for the GOP presidential nomination.

Mr Trump is now facing four different trials, two at the federal level, one in Georgia and one in Manhattan, with prosecutors jostling for windows to prosecute the Republican frontrunner.

He has pleaded not guilty to every charge in court and insisted on his innocence on social media.