Trump Pleads Not Guilty in Documents Case

MIAMI — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami on Tuesday to criminal charges that he risked disclosure of defense secrets and obstructed the government’s efforts to reclaim classified documents he took with him upon leaving office.

After arriving from his nearby Doral resort, Trump was booked and escorted into a 13th floor courtroom at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami in a scene as surreal as it was momentous.

Inside the courtroom, Trump — wearing a dark suit and a red tie — sat with his arms crossed at the defense table while the magistrate judge overseeing the hearing described the indictment. One of his lawyers, Todd Blanche, entered a plea on Trump’s behalf.

“We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” he said.

Nearly 2 1/2 years after leaving the White House, Trump — twice impeached, previously charged in an unrelated case in New York, still under investigation for his efforts to retain power following his loss in the 2020 election, but currently the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — began the legal process of defending himself against 37 counts lodged against him in the documents case last week by the special counsel, Jack Smith.

Trump’s personal aide, Walt Nauta, was also appearing before the magistrate judge, charged with lying to investigators and scheming with Trump to conceal boxes containing classified documents from the FBI and federal prosecutors.

Trump was represented in court by Christopher M. Kise, a former Florida solicitor general, and Blanche, a prominent New York defense lawyer. His legal team has been in flux since two other lawyers representing him resigned shortly after the indictment was made public.

Trump’s case has been assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who earlier handled a lawsuit he filed challenging the FBI’s court-authorized search of his Florida estate and club, Mar-a-Lago. A ruling in Trump’s favor in that case by Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, was later overturned by an appeals court that was sharply critical of her legal reasoning.

But Tuesday’s hearing was overseen by Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, according to court papers released Monday night. Magistrate judges handle many of the routine and procedural aspects of court cases.

Outside the courthouse, amid a heavy police presence, small groups of pro-Trump demonstrators voiced their support for the former president, who has denounced the indictment as the latest installment in a long-running and politically inspired witch hunt against him.

Trump planned to travel back to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, following his arraignment to deliver a statement.

Last Thursday, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Trump on 37 counts connected with the removal, storage and concealment of sensitive government documents he had taken from the White House.

A day later, federal prosecutors unsealed the 49-page indictment, which laid out in vivid detail Trump’s casual, at times haphazard handling of highly sensitive documents from his White House that included details of sensitive nuclear programs, intelligence on foreign adversaries, Pentagon battle plans and other documents that detailed the country’s potential vulnerabilities to military attack.

In some cases, prosecutors said, he displayed them to people without security clearances and stored them in a haphazard manner at Mar-a-Lago, even stacking a pile of boxes in a bathroom at his private club and residence in Florida.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/13/us/trump-indictment-arraignment-court/here-is-the-latest-on-the-trumps-court-appearance">The New York Times</a>.