Historic trial: Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of indictment

He Former President of the United States (USA) and candidate for the 2024 election, Donald Trump He was arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Miami, after being arrested and charged with 37 charges brought against him in the case of classified documents found in his Florida home during a 2022 search.

The Trump’s lawyerswho did not speak and kept his arms crossed the entire time, said he pleaded “not guilty” and asked to be tried by a jury.

Trump, the first president or former president in United States history to face federal indictment, was accused of being fingerprinted and photographed, then appeared before Federal Judge Jonathan Goodman.

A full reading of the 37 charges against him was not conducted. grand jury for handling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida mansion, because his lawyers said it wasn’t necessary, because they already knew about them.

The prosecution pointed out that it was not necessary for Trump handed over his passport because they do not think there is a risk of flight, which means he can travel abroad freely, but he asked the judge to take measures so that the former president could not influence potential witnesses of the trial.

Trump is scheduled to travel to New Jerseywhere he is planning a fundraiser for his campaign to be the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

Of the 37 charges for which he must answer, 31 correspond to a classified offense deliberate withholding of information of national defense.

The others are for conspiracy to obstruct justice, “corrupt” concealment of a document or record, concealment of a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal and false statement and representation.

According to the 49-page document that includes the charge, the most serious crimes charged Trumpsuch as obstruction of justice and conspiracy, are punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000, and less serious ones, such as conspiracy to conceal, by 5 years in prison and the same fine.

Research, which he led special prosecutor Jack Smithit began in 2022 as a result of a search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s house in Palm Beach (Florida), conducted by FBI agents.

They found more than 11,000 official documents, among which about a hundred were classified as secret or “top secret”.

The indictment states that there are documents related to “nuclear weapons in the United States” and “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country”.

They also found documents from intelligence briefings from White Houseincluding some detailing the military capabilities of the United States and other countries.

Prosecutors claim that Trump he showed that material to people who did not have security clearances to review it and later tried to hide it from his own lawyers when they tried to comply with federal demands to find and return the documents.

Mar-a-Lago “was not an authorized location for the storage, possession, display or discussion of classified documents,” according to the minutes detailing the charges.

Last week, a grand jury in Miami federal court that had heard witnesses called by the prosecution since mid-May and reviewed evidence collected by Smith’s team found that Trump was indicted on 37 criminal charges handed down this Tuesday by Judge Jonathan Goodman. inform.

This judge is not the one to preside over Trump’s case, a task that has fallen to Colombian-born Judge Aileen Cannon, appointed by the former president, who maintains her innocence and attributes the charge to a “big witch hunt” launched by the current US president. Democrat Joe Biden.

Cannon drew criticism for his handling of the case in the early stages, particularly for granting a request by the former president’s lawyers for a special expert to review official documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

The Justice Department won an appeal against that decision, so the appointed expert, Raymond Dearie, had to leave his assignment last December without completing it.

Along with Trump, who will be accompanied by a lawyer Chris Kise and Todd Blanche, will be accused by Waltine Nautamilitary aide from the days of his presidency (2017-2021) who was seen moving boxes of official documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Special prosecutor Smith, who is in charge of the investigation, said last Friday, when the file was unsealed, that the law applies to everyone and that he would seek a speedy trial “consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused.”

He also asked the public to read the indictment to understand “the scope and seriousness of the crimes charged.”

The prosecution alleges that Trump is “seeking to obstruct FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal the withholding of classified documents.”

This new prosecutor’s office, the first that one president or former US president., follows Trump’s indictment in a non-federal court in Manhattan, New York for alleged improper payments to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

In that case, he was charged with 34 counts related to $130,000 paid to Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign to hide a sexual relationship they had a decade ago. The trial is scheduled for March 2024.

Trump is also being investigated for his actions ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 mob seizure of the Capitol to prevent Congress from confirming Biden’s 2020 election victory, which the former president said was a robbery.”

Additionally, last May, a New York jury ordered Trump to pay $5 million in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll for sexually assaulting her years ago and for defaming her later when she publicly denounced the facts.

After the hearing, Trump took a bath at a famous Cuban restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana after being indicted on 37 criminal charges related to the handling of classified official documents.

Just when everyone thought that the motorcade that left the courthouse in downtown Miami after the hearing was headed for the airport, television channels showed that its destination was Versailles, the iconic site of Cuban exiles.

There, many sympathizers and journalists were waiting for him, who conveyed the moment in which they congratulated the former president, who turns 77 on Wednesday, on his birthday.

Live cameras showed him greeting those present who expressed their support and asked him to take a photo with him.