Former President Donald Trump, charged with negligent handling of state secrets after leaving the White House, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in his historic appearance in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
“We plead not guilty unequivocally,” his attorney Todd Blanche said during the hearing, an AFP journalist noted.
This sets the stage for a potentially very damaging lawsuit for his 2024 US presidential campaign.
The 76-year-old Republican is accused of endangering the security of the United States by storing confidential documents, including military plans or information about nuclear weapons, in a bathroom or storage room at his luxury residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
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He is also accused of refusing to return these documents despite court orders, leading to charges against him of “illegally withholding information related to national security”, but also “obstruction of justice” and “false testimony”. .
A federal judge briefed him on the 37 charges against him. He left the court shortly after the court.
Since his questioning, the Republican has denounced a “scheme” aimed at disqualifying him from competing against Democratic President Joe Biden, who is also running for a second term.
At the same time, his campaign team sends numerous emails to his supporters, encouraging them to contribute financially to his defense.
However, only a few dozen protesters went to the Miami courthouse to protest his indictment.
They often wore a red “Make America Great Again” cap and denounced the lawsuits against Donald Trump to an army of journalists.
“I’m just amazed that as a country that is a role model to the world, I have to witness this degrading spectacle,” Lazaro Ezenar, 48, told AFP as dozens of police officers lined the palace grounds.
For the past 24 hours, American media helicopters have been documenting the billionaire’s every move, from his private plane to his golf club to this plaza, a tall building with glass windows surrounded by palm trees.
This is the first time a former US President has been indicted at the federal level.
But Donald Trump has already endured the ordeal of a court date: In early April, the New York State Judiciary charged him with multiple accounting frauds related to a payment made before the 2016 presidential election to silence an “X Movies” actress he says , she is his lover.
As after his appearance in New York in April, Donald Trump made an appointment with his supporters in New Jersey that same evening for a speech scheduled for 8:15 p.m.
In the United States, a law requires presidents to send all their emails, letters, and other working documents to the national archives. Another ban prohibits the keeping of state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
When he left the White House in January 2021, Donald Trump still took dozens of boxes full of files with him.
In January 2022, after several reminders, the ex-president agreed to the return of boxes containing nearly 200 classified documents, but kept some secret.
To recover them, FBI agents conducted a spectacular search in Mar-a-Lago on August 8 and confiscated around 30 more boxes containing 11,000 documents.
What impact will this case have on his electoral ambitions? Many of his followers continue to pledge their support, convinced that he is the victim of a conspiracy.
But Donald Trump is probably not done with the legal troubles. A Georgia prosecutor is expected to announce the outcome of her investigation into his pressure to change the 2020 presidential election by September.
A special prosecutor is also investigating his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The criminal trial of the former president in New York could take place in early 2024, right during the Republican primaries in which he is currently the big favorite.