Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents, news reported. His lawyers have asked for a jury trial during Trump’s arraignment at a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said to the judge, “We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty.”
Trump was arrested after surrendering to federal authorities at the Miami courthouse, News reported. The booking process took around 10 minutes.
Prior to the arraignment, deputy marshals booked Trump and took electronic copies of his fingerprints, according to news report. The officials did not take a mugshot of the former US President considering he is easily recognizable.
Trump’s aide and co-defendant Walt Nautu has also been arrested, fingerprinted and processed.
The criminal charges in the US Justice Department’s classified documents case escalate the legal jeopardy surrounding the Republican Party front-runner for the 2024 Presidential elections, the report said.
Former US President Donald Trump is facing 37 felony counts, alleging he illegally retained national defence information and that he concealed documents violating witness-tampering laws in the US Justice Department’s investigation into the materials, news reported.
Trump’s aide Walt Nauta has also been charged in the indictment which alleges the two men were involved in a conspiracy to hinder the federal probe.
Donald Trump left his resort in his motorcade Tuesday along with Walt Nauta who was travelling in a separate vehicle.
Prior to heading to court, Trump on his social media wrote, that it was “ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE!!!,” news reported.
One of Trump’s attorneys criticized the justice system and ridiculed what she described as a “two-tiered system of justice.” She termed the indictment against Trump an “unapologetic weaponization of the criminal justice system.” She made the remarks outside the Miami courthouse where Donald Trump is being arraigned.
While addressing a news conference outside the court on Tuesday (local time), Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said, “Today is not about Donald J. Trump, who is defiant,” news reported. She further said, “It is not about the Republican Party.
It is not about the 2024 election. It is about the destruction of the long-standing American principles that have set this country apart for so long.”
