Documents issue.. The court allows Trump to leave without conditions
Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to the 37 counts in the classified documents case during a hearing in Federal Court in Miami.
While the court allowed Trump to leave without conditions, according to CNN.
On Tuesday, the former US president arrived in a Miami court to face dozens of federal charges of mishandling government secrets, in the most serious criminal investigation that threatens to hinder his return to the White House.
Security has been beefed up around the federal courtroom in downtown Miami.
“It is one of the saddest days in the history of our country. We are a nation in decline,” Trump wrote on his “Truth Social” platform, repeating his accusations that the trial was a political “hunt” against him.
“Let’s make America great again”
While dozens of Trump supporters gathered near the courtroom, some of them wore hats bearing the slogan “Let’s Make America Great Again” and the last banner that read “accuse Jack Smith”, the special investigator assigned to oversee the investigation.
The police were prepared for any possible protests or unrest, but the atmosphere was festive, with a local radio station broadcasting Cuban salsa music.
Trump, whose convoy traveled the 25-minute commute from his golf club in Doral to the courthouse, also blasted “Truth Social” on Tuesday morning, calling Smith “clumsy.”
37 counts
Trump faces 37 counts of illegally keeping classified documents, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and other crimes.
The billionaire, who will turn seventy-seven on Wednesday, is accused of keeping government secrets that he illegally took with him to his home in Florida when his term ends in 2021, and of refusing to return them and conspiring to obstruct the work of investigators who were seeking to recover them.
He is also accused of revealing sensitive American secrets to people who do not have security clearances, in a case more serious than the other cases he faced, and the penalty could reach decades of imprisonment.
“No withdrawal from the race”
The frontrunner to win the Republican primary in 2024 pledged to stay in the race regardless of the outcome of the case, launching for the first time in US history a campaign in which two battles, legal and electoral, face each other.
The 49-page indictment includes photos showing boxes that were supposed to be in the National Archives stacked in ballrooms, bedrooms and bathrooms at the Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump’s residence in Palm Beach. The president dismissed the indictment as “ridiculous”.
