The former president was booked in Miami and appeared in court for an arraignment in the historic case.
MIAMI — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal criminal charges that he hoarded classified military secrets at his estate in Mar-a-Lago and hindered the government’s attempts to get them back.
Trump faces 37 felony charges: 31 counts of willful retention of national security records and six counts for allegedly obstructing the federal effort to recover those documents. It is the first time in American history that a former president has been charged by the government he once led.
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If found guilty in the documents case, Trump could face a lengthy prison term.
Shortly after he arrived at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. federal courthouse here on Tuesday afternoon, authorities booked Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, who is a longtime Trump aide and is accused of conspiring with Trump to obstruct the grand jury investigation into his alleged retention of highly classified military secrets. Nauta faces six felony counts.
Then Trump appeared before a federal magistrate judge for his arraignment and entered his “not guilty” plea.
The arraignment will trigger a lengthy pretrial process as prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers attempt to hammer out agreements on evidence in the case and schedule a trial.
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Trump has spent the days since last week’s indictment assailing the Justice Department and seeking, despite the evidence arrayed against him, to cast the prosecution as politically motivated. He has lobbed particularly pointed invective at special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation.
That continued Tuesday, with Trump suggesting — also without evidence — that investigators planted evidence in his home, a case he and his lawyers have notably refused to make in a courtroom.
“They taint everything that they touch, including our country, which is rapidly going to HELL!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday morning.
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- Discussion
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Donald Trump has arrived at a federal courthouse where he is expected to plead not guilty to all 37 felony charges in the classified docs case at his arraignment in Miami. https://t.co/pP7g218e6B pic.twitter.com/4otCUw6c2r
— POLITICO (@politico) June 13, 2023
Not complicated. https://t.co/cjdGVEODKB
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) June 13, 2023
And @MarkHertling gets it right: This is more of a national security case than a documents case.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 13, 2023This thread. https://t.co/Mt8OxZN2sj
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 13, 2023
New: Special Counsel Jack Smith was in the front row of the courtroom for Trump’s arraignment today — and stared towards the former president for essentially the entire appearance.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) June 13, 2023
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