NO HUGE crowds…..
No HUGE protests ….
And criminal arrest arraignment ….
A second arrest of a ex-Presidentn of the United State of America….
A rally after the arrest to raise money…..
A throw down against the prosecutor …..
Another historic episode in the train wreck of Donald J. Trump over the last half a decade….
The show goes on……
From the NY Times…..
Former President Donald J. 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, Mr. 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, Mr. 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 W. Blanche, entered a plea on Mr. Trump’s behalf.
“We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” he said.
Nearly two and a half years after leaving the White House, Mr. 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 countslodged against him in the documents case last week by the special counsel, Jack Smith.
Mr. Trump’s personal aide, Walt Nauta, charged with lying to investigators and scheming with Mr. Trump to conceal boxes containing classified documents, also appeared before the magistrate judge but did not enter a plea. A lawyer for Mr. Nauta asked for a two-week extension because he needed a local lawyer to sponsor him.
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Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, who oversaw the hearing, ordered Mr. Trump not to discuss the case with Mr. Nauta or any witnesses — a common restriction in a criminal case. The judge said he understood that the two men must speak on a daily basis, but said anything related to the case must go through their lawyers.
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Mr. Trump was represented in court by Christopher M. Kise, a former Florida solicitor general, and Mr. 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. Mr. Smith, the special counsel, attended the hearing.
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While Judge Goodman oversaw Tuesday’s hearing, Mr. Trump’s case has been assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who earlier handled a lawsuit he filed challenging the F.B.I.’s court-authorized search of his Florida estate and club, Mar-a-Lago. A ruling in Mr. Trump’s favor in that case by Judge Cannon, who was nominated by Mr. Trump, was later overturned by an appeals court that was sharply critical of her legal reasoning.
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After departing the courthouse, Mr. Trump stopped briefly at Versailles, a renowned Cuban restaurant, and greeted a crowd of supporters. He then traveled back to his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., and delivered a speech to supporters, telling them, “I did everything right, and they indicted me.”….
From the Washington Post…..
“We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche said at the arraignment in a small but packed courtroom, where Trump sat at the defense table scowling and with his arms folded for much of the hearing.
Flanked by two of his lawyers, Blanche and Christopher Kise, the former president listened impassively as U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman said he planned to order the former president not to have any contact with witnesses in the case — or his co-defendant, Waltine “Walt” Nauta — as the case proceeds. Trump did not speak except to whisper to Blanche, seated to his right, and Kise on his left.
Blanche objected to the judge’s proposal, saying that Nauta and a number of witnesses are members of Trump’s staff or security detail who rely on him for their livelihood. The facts of the case, Blanche said, revolve around “everything in President Trump’s life.”
The judge relented somewhat, saying that Trump should not speak to Nauta or witnesses about the facts of the case. As to which Trump employees might be affected by the restriction, the judge instructed the prosecution team to provide a list.
Trump finished signing the bond paperwork about 3:30 p.m., after it appeared it had to be returned to the defense table twice because he and his lawyers didn’t sign or initial every line needed. “Third time’s a charm,” Goodman said…..
From the Hill…
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday unleashed a torrent of insults directed at special counsel Jack Smith hours after Trump pleaded not guilty to a 37-count indictment brought by Smith over the former president’s handling of classified materials after leaving office.
Trump, in a meandering and falsehood-filled speech from his Bedminster, N.J., property, levied personal attacks at Smith, who is overseeing the investigation into the former president.
Trump called Smith a “deranged lunatic,” a “thug,” and a “raging and uncontrolled Trump hater.”
“The prosecutor in the case, I will call our case, is a thug. I have named him ‘Deranged Jack Smith,’” Trump said. “He’s a behind the scenes guy, but his record is absoltuey atrocious. He does political hit jobs.”
“He’s a raging and uncontrolled Trump hater, as is his wife, who happened to be the producer of that Michelle Obama puff piece. This is the guy I’ve got,” Trump said.
Smith, who previously prosecuted war crimes at The Hague, is married to Katy Chevigny, a documentary filmmaker who worked on a 2020 documentary about the former first lady.
The special counsel was reportedly in the courtroom earlier Tuesday as Trump entered his plea.
The former president’s diatribe against Smith aligns with what has become a habit of attacking judges and prosecutors who investigate his conduct or oversee his cases. A federal judge overseeing Trump’s hush money case in Manhattan received death threats after the former president attacked him as a “Trump hating judge.”…
Fox Cable News…
Former President Trump cast his “sham” federal indictment as “election interference” by the Biden administration, slamming it as a “the most heinous abuse of power in the history of our country.”
Trump, the current 2024 frontrunner, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami, Florida Tuesday to 37 federal felony counts stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his alleged improper retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago.
The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.
Trump, making remarks Tuesday night from his property Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, slammed Smith as a “deranged lunatic,” and slammed President Biden for having “his top political opponent arrested and charged.” He said he had undergone “political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation.”….
image….Former president Donald Trump appears at his arraignment in Miami on Tuesday, alongside his aide Walt Nauta and attorneys Christopher Kise and Todd Blanche. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)