[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]MIAMI – In a historic appearance in federal court Tuesday, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to dozens of felony counts for mishandling some of the US government’s most sensitive secrets and plotting to prevent their return.
The former president, who is expected to run for president again for the Republicans next year, surrendered to US Marshals in Miami for a brief hearing, setting up the extraordinary prospect of a White House battle being fought in court as well as at the vote box.
On the eve of his 77th birthday, Trump appeared before a magistrate judge to be formally charged with 37 counts stemming from a special counsel investigation that began following an FBI raid on his Florida mansion. “We are certainly entering a not guilty plea,” his attorney, Todd Blanche, said during the hearing.
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The hearing comes just weeks after Trump denied state-level financial fraud allegations in a separate case in Manhattan, and it comes as the former reality TV star’s legal issues threaten to disrupt his effort to reclaim the presidency. The US government accuses Trump of breaching the Espionage Act and other laws when, upon leaving office in 2021, he withdrew sensitive records and neglected to turn them over to the National Archives.
Authorities claim he plotted to obstruct investigators and knowingly revealed national security information with others who did not have the necessary clearance. Trump was on his way back to his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, to deliver an evening speech defending his innocence, but he stopped to see fans at a Cuban restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana, where they sung him happy birthday. “We have a corrupt country,” Trump said, referring to the claims levelled against him. “A country in decline like never before,” he described it. “I believe this is a rigged game.”
The 49-page indictment, which Trump branded as “ridiculous,” contains images of boxes of documents stacked at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, in a ballroom and in a bathroom and shower.
According to a new Ipsos poll, 81 percent of Republican voters believe the charges against the former president are politically motivated, and he appeared in court with their support. “In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in politically motivated prosecutors who don’t care about impartiality, due process, or equal protection under the law,” Trump lawyer Alina Habba told CNN. “They have been quietly but aggressively cultivating a two-tiered system of justice where selective treatment is the norm.”
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