Former President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 charges bordering on alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Trump’s lawyers asked for a jury trial during the former president’s arraignment Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Miami.
“We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the judge.
During the hearing, Trump sat hunched over with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. He did not speak.
Trump’s aide and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, was also arrested, fingerprinted, and processed. He had an initial appearance Tuesday but will not be arraigned until June 27.
Here’s what else happened at Tuesday’s hearing, which ended after roughly 45 minutes:
Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman ruled that Trump could not communicate with Nauta about the case.
The judge also told prosecutors to make a list of potential witnesses that Trump can’t communicate with about the case – except through counsel.
The judge did not, however, place any travel restrictions on either defendant.
The Justice Department recommended that both Trump and Nauta be released with no financial or special conditions.
Prosecutor David Harbach said that “the government does not view either defendant as a flight risk.”
Goodman began the hearing by thanking “the entire law enforcement community” for their work on Tuesday.
Before the arraignment hearing, deputy marshals booked the former president and took electronic copies of his fingerprints.
They did not take a mugshot of Trump since he is easily recognizable. The booking process took about 10 minutes.
The criminal charges in the Justice Department’s classified documents case escalate the legal jeopardy surrounding the 2024 GOP front-runner. Special counsel Jack Smith attended Tuesday’s arraignment.
Trump faces 37 felony counts, alleging he illegally retained national defense information and that he concealed documents in violation of witness-tampering laws in the Justice Department’s probe into the materials.
Trump left his Doral resort in his motorcade Tuesday along with Nauta, who was traveling in a separate vehicle.
As he got in his vehicle, a bystander asked Trump how he was feeling. Trump said “great” and waved.
On his social media, Trump posted before heading to court that it was “ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE!!!”
Tuesday’s hearing will kickstart what will likely be a winding, dramatic judicial process, with criminal and appeal proceedings that may play out for years.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon – a Trump nominee whose decision last year to order a third-party review of an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago was widely criticized and overturned by a conservative appeals court – has been assigned the case.
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