Trump was indicted last week on 37 counts related to more than 100 classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago in August. The charges include willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice. It’s the first time in American history that a former president has faced federal charges.
Trump traveled to the courthouse in a 12 car motorcade. Who possibly could have been in those 12 cars? Appears that in his mind, he is still the President or at least wants to appear that he is.
Former President Donald Trump surrendered to authorities at the federal courthouse in Miami just before 2 p.m. ET. At his initial court appearance, Trump was represented by attorney Todd Blanche and former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise. The court required that Trump be represented by a Florida lawyer. Probably, due to the fact that Trump’s reputation for not paying his lawyers and that his lawyers typically need lawyers, he did not engage Mr Kise until the morning of the arraignment.
Trump was fingerprinted, used a previous mugshot, pleaded not guilty and left the courthouse roughly two hours later. Trump sat stoically with arms crossed and said nothing during the proceeding.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Goodman presided over the arraignment, but the case will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who ruled in Trump’s favor in an earlier dispute in the investigation.
Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Trump and a co-defendant, did not enter a plea today because he did not have local counsel. He faces six federal criminal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct, withholding a document or record and scheme to conceal. Trump is holding Nauta very close to him. He still works for Trump, traveled with him to the court and they walked out together. If Nauta flips, it obviously would be bad for Trump.
Trump signed a bond document that prohibits him from discussing his case with certain witnesses (i.e. Nauta and most everyone at Mar-A-Lago) — an unusual anti-witness-tampering provision added by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman that the prosecution had not sought. I have no idea how this would be enforced.
Trump previously proclaimed that if was ever indicted that the country would rise up in protest and he again urged his supporters to come to Miami. There was no nationwide protest and as before in NY, there was not a large number of protesters at the courthouse. However, we are all relieved that he did not provoke another January 6 type response.
Trump and Republicans repeated say that Trump is being treated differently and that there are two sets of rules, one for Democrats and another for Trump. I think they are correct. Others who have taken classified documents, have been swiftly brought to justice, they are fingerprinted, have mug shots taken, have passports taken, have bonds set and many are incarcerated until their trial. Compare Trump to Massachusetts resident Jack Texeira recently arrested for posting classified documents. Not saying Texeira was treated too severely, as in my opinion he was not, but that Trump is certainly being treated less severely than anyone else.
Trump also faces criminal charges in a New York state court where he pleaded not guilty in April to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In addition, he still faces investigations surrounding attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and the special counsel’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
For those keeping score, the score now is Trump 71 felony counts, all other presidents 0.
After the arraignment, Trump flew back to New Jersey, where he gave a speech to supporters at his golf club in Bedminster. Trump brought out all his greatest hits: “witch hunt”, “hoax”, “fake”, “Hilary Clinton”, “treated unfairly”, attacked the prosecutor and his wife, etc, etc. (we know the script well now) and at one point, he confessed to taking the documents because it was his right and he said he was “too busy” to look through the boxes.