Donald Trump’s hearing in the Miami court lasted 47 minutes. The former president pleaded not guilty to the 37 charges brought against him and left the facility, waving goodbye to the supporters crowded outside. Also present was Special Prosecutor Jack Smith.
As happened in Manhattan, the former president was temporarily placed in custody and had to complete all the paperwork before appearing in court, but he did not have to submit to a mugshot. Trump was accompanied to court in Miami by his son Eric.
What the charges against Trump are about
The 37 counts involve mishandling of confidential documents, including 31 counts under an Espionage Act statute of intentionally retaining national defense information. Other crimes include the charge of obstructing justice and making false statements. According to investigators, Trump would have kept documents relating to “nuclear weapons in the United States” and the “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country”, as well as documents relating to White House intelligence briefings, including some that detail the capabilities militaries of the United States and other countries.
Prosecutors say Trump allegedly showed the documents to people who didn’t have security clearances to review them and later tried to hide the documents from his own lawyers as they tried to meet federal requests to find and return the documents. The multiple allegations serious ones carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
Pompeo, Trump was wrong on secret papers
Donald Trump was “wrong” about the secret papers at Mar-a-Lago. This was stated by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an interview with Fox. “If the allegations are true, and many appear to be true, Trump had confidential documents that he shouldn’t have had and when he was given the opportunity to return them for some reason he didn’t,” Pompeo says, stressing that “this is not in line” with “the commitment to protect American soldiers”.