Former US President Donald Trump pleaded “not guilty” in federal court in Miami on Tuesday to 37 federal charges related to forgery and concealment of classified documents.
Trump, the first former president of the United States to be criminally indicted by a federal judge, appeared before federal judge Jonathan Goodman, who handed him 37 indictments brought by a grand jury for turning over classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. His mansion in South Florida.
The hearing began at 3:00 pm (local time, 8:00 pm in Lisbon) at the federal courthouse in Miami, Florida and lasted less than an hour. Supporters of the former president and anti-Trump protesters gathered next to the courthouse.
Wilfred Lee
Marco Bello
Trump had been staying at his golf club on the outskirts of Miami since last night.
Gerald Herbert
Already this afternoon, Donald Trump, by the way A couple of publications on your social networkTruth Social condemns what it calls a “witch hunt” and calls it one of the “saddest days in America’s history.”
Unlike the case in New York state, which some legal analysts characterize as relatively frivolous, the charges now brought by the Justice Department could have posed a risk to national security, carrying a significant sentence from prison.
The president encouraged his supporters to demonstrate at the Miami courthouse.
“Not Guilty”
Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded “not guilty” in federal court in Miami to 37 federal charges brought against him in connection with the diversion and concealment of classified documents.
Trump appeared before federal judge Jonathan Goodman, who served notice of the 37 indictments brought by the grand jury.
Trump also vowed not to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race “under any circumstances,” leading in the polls for the Republican primaries.
If convicted before the presidential election, Trump could legally continue as a candidate.
Politically, a conviction is unlikely to dissuade his supporters, and so far he has generally stuck to accusations of “witch hunt” and “political ploy”.
In this case, the outcome of the elections would be decisive: a win would keep Trump out of jail as opposed to a loss.
In January 2021, after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump left the White House to move into his luxury residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and took with him dozens of boxes containing 200 documents. According to the indictment released Friday, it was piled up in a ballroom, bathrooms or pantries.
Pressed to return the documents by the National Archives, which is legally obligated to hold all presidential archives, Trump returned 15 boxes a year later.
In June 2022, United States Federal Police (FBI) agents He went to the Chancellor’s mansion to retrieve 38 secret documents Additional. Still convinced that something was missing, federal agents returned in August of that year, this time armed with a search warrant.
The FBI left Florida with about thirty boxes containing 11,000 documents, including U.S. nuclear secrets and a military attack plan against a foreign power.