Trump is indicted on documents and obstruction charges

Donald J. Trump, twice impeached as president and now indicted twice since leaving the White House, surrendered to federal authorities in Miami on Tuesday and was indicted on charges of endangering national security secrets and obstructing investigators.

Mr. Trump was booked, fingerprinted, and led to a courtroom on the 13th floor of the Federal District Court, where his attorney pleaded not guilty on his behalf.

Sitting among the spectators about 20 feet away was Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the investigation leading to the 38-count indictment against Mr. Trump and his personal assistant, Walt Nauta, who was also present at the proceedings but did not participate to a lawsuit. plead.

Mr. Trump, who spent much of the indictment with his arms folded and a grim expression, and Mr. Smith, a hardline former war crimes prosecutor who has rarely been seen in public since presiding over the case, spoke not with each other during the hearing, or even exchange glances.

The 50-minute hearing, both mundane and memorable, marked the beginning of what is sure to be a months-long process to bring Mr. Trump to justice against the backdrop of a presidential race in which he is the front runner for the Republican president. presentation.

Mr. Trump has also been charged in an unrelated case by the Manhattan District Attorney, who charged him in connection with hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. He faces a separate investigation by a prosecutor in Fulton County, Georgia, investigating efforts to reverse his 2020 Georgia election loss, and Mr. Smith is continuing a federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s attempts to retain power and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 by a pro-Trump mob.

Outside the courthouse, amid a large police presence, small groups of pro-Trump protesters expressed support for the former president, who has condemned the charges as the latest installment in a long-running and politically-inspired witch hunt against him.

Inside, Mr. Trump was quickly taken through the process of becoming a defendant in a federal criminal case, with authorities trying to minimize anything that could be interpreted as an attempt to further embarrass the former president.

He was not required to have his police photo taken, the government did not ask for travel restrictions that were often imposed on those accused of serious crimes, and prosecutors seemed willing to grant him generous bond terms without requiring cash bail.

Mr. Trump did not speak in court, other than whispered chatter with his two new attorneys before the arraignment began, and aside once it got underway.

When asked for his plea, one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche, spoke on behalf of Mr. Trump.

“We are definitely entering a plea of ​​not guilty,” he said.

Mr. Trump has been charged with 37 criminal charges involving seven different violations of federal law, alone or with Mr. Nauta.

The former president was charged with 31 counts of deliberately withholding national defense information under the Espionage Act and one count of making false statements stemming from his interactions with federal investigators and one of his attorneys.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta were jointly charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding government records, corruptly concealing records, concealing a document in a federal investigation, and plotting to conceal their efforts. Mr. Nauta was charged with a separate count of making false statements to detectives.

Mr. Trump’s case has been assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who previously heard a lawsuit he filed against the FBI-authorized search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and club in Florida. A ruling in favor of Mr. Trump in that case by Judge Cannon, which had been suggested by Mr. Trump, was later overturned by an appeals court that sharply criticized her legal reasoning.

But Tuesday’s hearing was overseen by Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman. Magistrate judges handle many of the routine and procedural aspects of court cases.

Mr. Nauta could not make a plea because he still had no local counsel. Judge Goodman has scheduled a hearing for Mr. Nauta on June 27 to enter a plea.

Mr Trump and Mr Nauta were ordered by Judge Goodman not to discuss their criminal case, even though the two work closely together and see each other practically every day. Judge Goodman said all discussions related to the case should go through their lawyers.

The restrictions – which do not apply to other topics of conversation – are common for co-defendants in a criminal case, but they can be particularly difficult to enforce, as Mr Nauta’s job is to follow the former president throughout his days and different needs . To underscore Mr. Nauta’s closeness to Mr. Trump, Mr. Nauta rode with him from Mr. Trump’s club, Doral, to the courthouse for Tuesday’s hearing.

The two men talk a lot and have spent most of the past two years; Mr. Nauta first served as a clerk in the White House and now serves as an aide to Mr. Trump in his post-presidential life. The former president tends to treat his closest personal aides as sounding boards for all sorts of topics.

Mr. Trump is hardly known for his restraint under typical circumstances, but especially when ordered to do something by a person in a position of authority. An edict not to discuss a matter that has preoccupied Mr Trump for weeks poses an even greater challenge.

The same restriction on the defendants’ communications was also applied to witnesses in the case, a list that the government is supposed to list. That poses a similar challenge to the situation with Mr. Nauta: A number of Mr. Trump’s advisers, current and former Mar-a-Lago employees, and even some of his lawyers have been interviewed as part of the investigation.

The exchange also offered a glimpse of what has not yet become public about the administration’s investigation — namely, that a significant number of witnesses in the case, who work on the president’s campaign, security details and personal personnel remain unknown to the defense.

One of the prosecutors, David Harbach, admitted that the “elephant in the room” was that the Justice Department had not yet been able to produce a comprehensive list of witnesses.

Mr. Trump’s day highlighted the challenges of being both a defendant in a criminal case that could send him to prison and a presidential candidate. And it showed that Mr. Trump has no intention of muting himself as the case plays out, or giving up on his instinct to fight in the court of public opinion as well as in court.

Mr. Trump posted messages on his social media platform several times throughout the day, often in half sentences denouncing the case against him. In one post, he attacked Mr. Smith as a “thug,” while in others he continued his long-running attempts to view the investigations as a partisan effort to avoid facing President Biden next year.

“ON THE ROAD TO THE LAW BUILDING. WITCH HUNT!!!” he wrote at one point.

Once the court proceedings concluded, Mr. Trump went to a campaign-style stop in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, where his support has always been strong among Cuban Americans, and especially elderly Cuban exiles. “Donald Trump,” the audience cheered. “Viva el presidente!”

He stopped at Versailles, the self-proclaimed “world’s most famous Cuban restaurant,” where he greeted a crowd of supporters, including a rabbi and a non-denominational minister who prayed for him.

He then boarded his jet for a flight back to New Jersey, where he held a fundraiser, with backers raising at least $100,000 for his campaign, invited to a “candlelight dinner,” and gave remarks at his golf club in Bedminster.

“I did everything right and they sued me,” Trump said, demure but barely holding back his anger.

He claimed, in defiance of the plain meaning of the law, that he had the right under the Presidential Records Act to keep the records he took. “I had every right” to keep them, he said.

The 49-page indictment of Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta describes in vivid detail Mr. Trump’s casual, sometimes haphazard handling of highly sensitive documents from his White House. It said those documents included details of sensitive nuclear programs, intelligence on foreign adversaries, Pentagon battle plans and other documents detailing the country’s potential vulnerability to military attack.

In some cases, prosecutors said, he showed them to people without security clearances and stashed them haphazardly at Mar-a-Lago, even stacking a stack of boxes in a bathroom at his private Florida club and residence.

Tuesday’s hearing was also a landmark one: It was the first time Mr Trump and Mr Smith, opponents in a legal battle with huge implications, have crossed paths in public.

After the hearing concluded, Mr. Trump glanced briefly over his shoulder at the reporters who packed the courtroom before exiting through a side door.

Mr. Smith and his accusers left about a minute later through a door on the other side of the courtroom.

Reporting contributed by Maggie Haberman, Alan Feuer, Zach Montague, Shane Goldmacher, Nick Madigan, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Frances Robles, Luke Broadwater, William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess And Gaya Gupta.