Donald Trump pleads not guilty to 37 federal counts in documents case arraignment in Miami
Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal criminal charges that he illegally retained reams of documents with highly classified intelligence and obstructed attempts by US government officials to retrieve them.
Trump's appearance in US District Court in Miami follows the historic federal indictment last week, the first for a former American president. He faces 37 charges, involving violations of the Espionage Act, making false statements, and conspiracy regarding his mishandling of classified material after leaving office.
The indictment includes allegations that he described a Pentagon "plan of attack" and shared a classified map related to a military operation with individuals who lacked security clearance.
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Todd Blanche, an attorney who joined Trump's legal team earlier this year for a state criminal case in New York, entered the plea on Trump's behalf. Christopher Kise, a former Florida solicitor general who joined Trump's defence team last fall, was also beside the former president.
Trump had sought a turnout by his supporters, posting on his Truth Social account before arriving at the courthouse that Tuesday was "ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY".
A US Marshals Service spokesman said shortly after 2pm local time that the booking process for Trump and Walt Nauta, an aide and close adviser to the former president indicted along with him, had been completed.
The federal case against Trump, the front-running candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination next year, has fuelled further strife in an already divided electorate.
Many Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have condemned the US Justice Department for what they claim is a political prosecution meant to damage Trump's chances of retaking the White House from US President Joe Biden.
Failing to acknowledge that Attorney General Merrick Garland brought in an independent special counsel, Jack Smith, to run the investigation and case as a way to insulate it from the perception of interference, McCarthy and some other Republican lawmakers have turned to inflammatory rhetoric.
US Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona, for example, tweeted shortly after the indictment was unsealed last week: "We have now reached a war phase. Eye for an eye."
When asked about the indictments against Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, his closest rival for the nomination, has repeatedly railed against the "weaponisation" of prosecutions, including the state case in New York stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn actress.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case as well.
Smith, who started as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office in the 1990s, is also leading another investigation into Trump's role in the violent attack on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021, in a bid to halt Congress's certification of Biden's election victory.
However, Trump does not have the party fully lined up behind him.
Some prominent Republicans - including William Barr, who served as Trump's attorney general - have said the charges make him unfit to run for president next year.
"This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here - the victim of a witch hunt - is ridiculous ... He's not a victim here," Barr said in a Fox News interview about the indictment on Sunday. "He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has."
Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor now running for the Republican nomination, said on Monday on CNN that the conduct alleged in the indictment was "inexcusable".
Christie, a former US attorney, said that "it is a very tight, very evidence-laden indictment" and that "the conduct in there is awful".
Nikki Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN who is also running for the Republican nomination, criticised the Justice Department for pursuing the man who appointed her to the UN post. But she also called Trump's retention of classified documents "reckless".
"If this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security," Haley told Fox News on Monday.
She added: "This puts all of our military men and women in danger, if you're going to talk about what our military is capable of or how we would go about invading or doing something with one of our enemies."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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