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WASHINGTON – Former United States president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty yesterday to 37 counts brought by federal prosecutors related to his alleged retention of classified government records after he left office.
Trump entered his plea as expected during his arraignment at the federal courthouse in Miami, Florida, according to multiple reports. He was slated to deliver public remarks yesterday from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to Anadolu Agency.
Trump sat cross-armed for much of the hearing and did not speak except to whisper to Todd Blanche, one of the attorneys representing him, according to The Washington Post newspaper.
US district judge Jonathan Goodman informed Trump that he would order the ex-president not to interact with any of the witnesses in the case or his co-defendant Walt Nauta.
Chaos unfurled as Trump departed the courthouse, with demonstrators – both supporters and opponents – rushing in front of the former president’s convoy as it made its way down the street.
At least one demonstrator holding a sign and clad in a faux black and white prison jumpsuit was shoved out of the way by law enforcement before being taken into custody, according to television footage of the incident.
Trump became the first ex-US president to face federal charges when he was indicted by a Florida grand jury last week. He faces separate state charges related to his business dealings in New York.
The 37 counts include 31 of willful retention of national defence information, most of which are tied to documents that were seized when the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8 last year. Eleven of the charges relate to documents that were handed to FBI investigators by Trump’s attorneys in June.
The investigation kicked off after the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved 15 boxes of government files, including 184 classified documents, in January. It subsequently handed them over to the FBI as it referred the matter to the bureau.
Trump faces an additional count of conspiracy to obstruct justice alongside Nauta, a military valet to Trump during his time in the White House who went on to serve as a personal aide after he left office in January 2021.
The men are also charged with withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, and carrying out a scheme to conceal, it reported.
Trump and Nauta are each charged with one count of making false statements to federal investigators. The indictment was filed on Thursday in the US district court for the Southern District of Florida after it was returned by a grand jury.
Trump has maintained the case against him is politically motivated, a charge denied by special counsel Jack Smith, who was tapped to independently carry out the federal probe by US Attorney-General Merrick Garland in November.
Speaking after the indictment was unsealed Friday, Smith said the application of US law and collection of facts “determine the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more, nothing less”.
“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” he was quoted as saying, as he vowed to “seek a speedy trial on this matter consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused”.
According to Anadolu Agency, Trump, speaking during a brief visit to a Miami restaurant after his court appearance, said “it’s a rigged deal”.
“We have a rigged country. We have a country that’s corrupt. We have a country that has no borders. We have a country that’s got nothing but problems. We’re a nation in decline, and then they do this stuff – and you see where the people are,” he said. – Bernama, June 14, 2023