By our staff reporter
Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 37 felony counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. This is the first time the Department of Justice has ever charged a former president with a crime.
CNN reports that Trump was released on his own recognizance after the 45-minute proceeding. As a condition of his release, he is barred from talking to his aide Walt Nauta, who was charged on six counts in the 44-page indictment, about the case.
Trump will not be required to relinquish his passport and there will be no limit on his domestic or international travel. He departed the courthouse just before 4 p.m. ET.
Trump, who flew on his private plane to Miami on Monday, arrived at courthouse at around 1:50 p.m.
Officials told reporters ahead of the arraignment that there will be no mugshot, and cameras were not allowed in the courthouse.
Special counsel Jack Smith, whose office led the investigation that led to the Justice Department to charge Trump, arrived in Miami on Monday night.
Trump’s advisers say his mood is “defiant and confident” over the charges
Trump huddled with top campaign and legal advisers on Monday night at his Trump Doral hotel ahead of his court scheduled court appearance on Tuesday. Trump and his team had dinner in a private room at the hotel’s BLT Prime restaurant and next to the restaurant’s circular bar that had the Miami Heat vs. Denver Nuggets NBA Finals game playing on the TV.
His advisers said that Trump and his team have been buoyed by recent polls, including the new CBS poll, that showed in the aftermath of Thursday’s indictment news, Trump had a formidable double-digit lead over the rest of the GOP field, including Ron DeSantis.
Earlier in the day, Trump was greeted with cheers and applause by hotel patrons and supporters when he first arrived into the lobby. A larger group of Trump supporters had congregated in a parking lot across the street from the opulent Doral property.
Pro-Trump supporters, some wearing Trump t-shirts and hats, sat at the bar and some said they were also planning on attending the courthouse protests on Tuesday. One Florida Trump supporter at the Trump Doral bar, a New York transplant who was staying at the hotel in hopes of running into the former president, said she hoped that Trump would not be convicted and imprisoned because she thought there could be a “civil war” if it were to happen.
Special counsel Jack Smith, whose office oversaw the investigation that led to the Justice Department to charge Trump, arrived in Miami on Monday night.
Jack Smith, lists 37 felony counts against Trump related to his handling of sensitive government documents, including some that allegedly involve “defense and weapons capabilities” and U.S. nuclear programs. A Trump aide, Walt Nauta, is also charged in the case.
The 37 counts against Trump are:
31 counts of willful retention of classified documents
1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice
1 count of withholding a document or record
1 count of corruptly concealing a document or record
1 count of concealing a document in a federal investigation
1 count of scheme to conceal
1 count of making false statements and representations.
Nauta, Trump’s 40-year-old former valet, was charged with six counts:
1 count of conspiracy to obstruction justice
1 count of withholding a document or record
1 count of corruptly concealing a document or record
1 count of concealing a document in a federal investigation
1 count of scheme to conceal
1 count of making false statements or representations.
The charges against Trump involve 31 records “relating to the national defense” discovered at Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment, including White House intelligence briefings from 2018 through 2020 related to foreign countries, documents concerning military capabilities of foreign countries and the U.S., a June 2020 document involving a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities, an undated record about U.S. nuclear weaponry and a document from October 2018 concerning the communications with another country’s leader.
