In a major development, former US President Donald Trump has walked out 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 retrieve them. First arrived in Florida on Monday. Trump’s Tuesday afternoon appearance in Miami will mark the second time since April he will face a judge on criminal charges.
But unlike a New York case some legal analysts ridiculed as relatively frivolous, the Justice Department’s first prosecution of a former president raises concerns that the prosecution threatens national security, one of the Espionage Act charges. Significant prison sentence is likely.
Trump accuses federal agency of weaponizing
Ahead of his court date, he and his allies are stepping up efforts to drop the criminal case against him and quell the protests. He lashed out against the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case, calling Jack Smith a “deranged” because he repeated his claims without any evidence that he was the target of political harassment. And even as his supporters accused the Justice Department of being weaponized against him, he vowed on Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate President Joe Biden and his family if Trump is elected to a second term. Elected.
Trump arrived in Miami around 3 p.m. Monday and boarded a waiting SUV. A scuffle with advisers was expected ahead of his court appearance, as he seeks to line up additional lawyers following the departure last week ahead of his arraignment of two lawyers who had handled the defense for months. He encouraged supporters to join a planned protest at the Miami courthouse on Tuesday, where they will face charges and surrender to authorities.
“We need strength in our country now,” Trump told longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone in an interview on WABC radio on Sunday. “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 a lot to protest against. We’ve lost everything,” he went on.
He also said there were no circumstances under which he would drop the 2024 race, where he has dominated the Republican primary. Following his court appearance, he will return to New Jersey, where he has scheduled a press event to publicly respond to the allegations. He will also hold a private fundraiser.
Trump has 37 felony charges
The Justice Department on Friday unsealed an indictment charging Trump with 37 felonies, including 31 related to willfully withholding national defense information. Other charges include conspiracy to obstruct and making false statements. The indictment alleges that Trump knowingly retained hundreds of classified documents he moved from the White House to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after he left the White House in January 2021.
The indictment states that the material she collected, including bathrooms, ballrooms, bedrooms and showers, included information on nuclear programs, the defense and weapons capabilities of US and foreign governments, and the Pentagon’s “plans of attack”. Prosecutors said the information, if exposed, could put members of the military, confidential human sources, and intelligence collection methods at risk.
(with inputs from agencies)