UPDATED: 6/14/23 7:17AM
Donald Trump is characterizing the federal charges against him as “election interference and yet another attempt to rig and steal a presidential election.”
He aired his grievances to hundreds of supporters at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, hours after becoming the first former president to face charges in federal court. He entered a plea of not guilty.
Previewing a possible legal defense, Trump said he had a right to go through boxes and separate personal records from government documents.
He also said he had not had a chance to review all the materials transferred from the White House before FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago residence last year.
Trump called the case against him “one of the most outrageous and vicious legal theories ever put forward in an American court of law” and compared his own actions to those of other former senior officials, though the facts in those cases are different.
He called special counsel Jack Smith a “thug” who does “political hit jobs” and said, “This day will go down in infamy.”
UPDATED 7/13/23
MIAMI (AP) — Follow along for live updates on former President Donald Trump, who is making his first court appearance Tuesday after being indicted on 37 charges related to the mishandling classified documents. The indictment marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president faces criminal charges by the federal government he once oversaw.
Former President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging he hoarded classified documents detailing sensitive military secrets and schemed to thwart government efforts to get them back.
Trump appeared before a judge in Miami’s federal courthouse on Tuesday in a stunning moment in American history days after he became the first former president charged with federal crimes.
MORE COVERAGE
– Trump supporters cheer wildly as he arrives at Miami courthouse, while others protest
– What to expect when Trump appears in federal court in Miami to face felony charges
– Trump pleads not guilty to federal charges
Authorities say Trump schemed and lied to block the government from recovering the documents concerning nuclear programs and other sensitive military secrets stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
It’s the second criminal case Trump is facing as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024. He’s also accused in New York state court of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in both cases and slammed the prosecutions as politically motivated. He’s expected to return later Tuesday to New Jersey, where he’s scheduled a press event to publicly respond to the charges.
TRUMP RODE TO COURT WITH HIS SON ERIC
Trump rode to court with his son Eric, who accompanied the motorcade from the former president’s Doral resort to the federal courthouse in Miami.
CNN aired footage of Trump walking to a line of SUVs with his son by his side while someone yelled, “Let’s go Trump!”
The former president could be seen stopping and waving at supporters, as well as chatting with staff members. Eric Trump appeared to clap his father on the back just before he climbed in a vehicle.
As he rode to court, Trump posted on his social media site that the case against him was a “witch hunt.”
Later, outside the courthouse Trump lawyer Alina Habba said, “Today is not about President Donald J. Trump, who is defiant.”
“It is not about the Republican Party, it is not about the 2024 election,” Habba added. “It is about the destruction of longstanding principles that have set this country apart.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump arrived in Florida on Monday ahead of a history-making federal court appearance on dozens of felony charges accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents and thwarting the Justice Department’s efforts to get them back.
Trump’s Tuesday afternoon appearance in Miami will mark his second time since April facing a judge on criminal charges. But unlike a New York case some legal analysts derided as relatively trivial, the Justice Department’s first prosecution of a former president concerns conduct that prosecutors say jeopardized national security, with Espionage Act charges carrying the prospect of a significant prison sentence.
Ahead of his court date, he and his allies have been escalating efforts to undermine the criminal case against him and drum up protests. He’s ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case, calling Jack Smith “deranged” as he repeated without any evidence his claims that he was the target of a political persecution. And even as his supporters accuse the Justice Department of being weaponized against him, he vowed Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate President Joe Biden and his family if Trump is elected to a second term.
Trump landed in Miami around 3 p.m. Monday and got into a waiting SUV. He was expected to huddle with advisers before his court appearance, as he looks to line up additional lawyers following the departure before his indictment last week of two attorneys who had handled the defense for months.
He’s encouraged supporters to join a planned protest at the Miami courthouse Tuesday, where he will face the charges and surrender to authorities.
“We need strength in our country now,” Trump said Sunday, speaking to longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone in an interview on WABC Radio. “And they have to go out and they have to protest peacefully. They have to go out.”
“Look, our country has to protest. We have plenty to protest. We’ve lost everything,” he went on.
He also said there were no circumstances “whatsoever” under which he would leave the 2024 race, where he’s been dominating the Republican primary.
Other Trump supporters have rallied to his defense with similar language, including Kari Lake, the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona who pointedly said over the weekend that if prosecutors “want to get to President Trump,” they’re ”going to have to go through me, and 75 million Americans just like me. And most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA.”
Trump’s calls for protest echoed exhortations he made ahead of a New York court appearance in April, where he faces charges arising from hush money payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign, though he complained that those who showed up to protest then were “so far away that nobody knew about ’em,” And just like in that case, he plans to address supporters in a Tuesday evening speech hours after his court date.
After his court appearance, he will return to New Jersey, where he’s scheduled a press event to publicly respond to the charges. He’ll also be holding a private fundraiser.
Trump supporters were also planning to load buses to head to Miami from other parts of Florida, raising concerns for law enforcement officials who are preparing for the potential of unrest around the courthouse.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the city would be ready, and police chief Manuel A. Morales said downtown could see anywhere from a few thousand up to 50,000 protesters. He said the city would be diverting traffic and possibly blocking streets depending on crowd size.
(Associated Press)
