Trump indictment live updates: Trump lashes out at ‘Biden crime family’ in Bedminster speech as he pleads not guilty

Chaos erupted in Miami after a protester jumped in front of former President Donald Trump’s motorcade as he left the federal courthouse after pleading not guilty to the 37 counts against him in connection to his alleged mishandling of national defence information.

In an interview with The Independent, before the incident took place, the protester identified himself as Domenic Santana.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Miami.

Former President Donald Trump gave a wave and a thumbs-up to crowds outside the federal courthouse in downtown Miami after pleading not guilty to criminal charges. He then headed to a Cuban restaurant where he warmly greeted waiting supporters in a camera-ready scene that resembled a campaign stop, and later he railed against the charges before a friendly crowd of invited guests at a private golf club he owns.

In the largely unseen moments Tuesday — his attorney entering his plea, Mr Trump sitting grim-faced with arms folded across his chest — the gravity of being the first former president charged with a federal crime was apparent.

In the seen moments, broadcast around the world in real time, there were a long motorcade, flag-waving supporters and a smaller number of anti-Trump protesters outside the courthouse. Then the former president and 2024 candidate had a detour in mind, to a popular restaurant where he was all smiles, greeted by supporters, prayed over by a rabbi and shadowed by his personal aide, who also has been charged in the case.

Then he flew on his private jet to New Jersey, where backers welcomed him with rally-like enthusiasm, music and chants for a speech delivered before a clubhouse with columns resembling the White House.

Mr Trump has long been adroit at creating his own portrait of events, ever mindful of the power of television to shape an impression even as his actions have strained the safeguards of American democracy. The post-court itinerary was an orchestrated effort at counterprogramming as he campaigns again for president and maintains that he has been unfairly targeted by political rivals.
The international attention and the screaming crowds were more signs of the extraordinary nature of the day’s events and the person at the center of it all.

A defendant like no other, Mr Trump was the first former president to appear before a federal judge on criminal charges. He also is leading the Republican field for the 2024 presidential nomination, holding his status as frontrunner even as he has faced these and other legal trouble.

Hardly any of those gathered in Miami interacted with Mr Trump, if they saw him at all through the window of his SUV. He arrived as part of a motorcade that entered the courthouse garage for his hearing on felony charges. The former president also left in the SUV with the windows rolled up before heading to Versailles, a restaurant, coffee shop and bakery that is a required stop for politicians visiting Miami.

There, the crowd serenaded him with the “Happy Birthday” song, one day before the former president’s 77th birthday.“Some birthday! We’ve got a government that’s out of control,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump has been making frequent stops at local restaurants during his campaign trips, in part to contrast his easy rapport with his supporters with his chief Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Tuesday’s stop was different, aimed at showcasing Mr Trump’s continued support from GOP voters and signaling that he remains unbowed by the indictments.

Hours after he was criminally charged in a federal courtroom in Miami, Donald Trump returned to his New Jersey club to deliver a barrage of false statements and declare his innocence in front of a throng of supporters.

The former president, who has routinely used his platforms to project allegations he faces toward his political enemies, lambasted the federal case against him as “the most evil and heinous abuse of power” under president Joe Biden, who Mr Trump falsely suggested was responsible for charging him.

“This day will go down in infamy and Joe Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country but perhaps, even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxist tried to destroy American democracy,” Mr Trump said.

For the second time in three months, the man who served as the 45th President of the United States stood before a judge as a defendant in a criminal case that could cost his freedom for a significant portion of his remaining lifespan.

Flanked by attorneys Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise, Donald Trump entered a Miami federal courtroom as US Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman formally presented him with a 37-count indictment accusing the former president of illegally retaining national defense documents and other classified materials at his Florida home, and obstructing government efforts to reclaim them.

Asked to enter a plea to the charges, Mr Blanche replied on behalf of the twice-impeached and now twice-indicted former president: “We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty.”

Andrew Feinberg in Miami and Alex Woodward in New York filed this report.

The ex-president delivered a roughly 30-minute address to a crowd of fans who descended upon the golf club to hear him swipe at political rivals and anyone else whose own actions he thought could be used to paint his own as harmless.

It was a rambling speech broken up by an impromptu singing of “Happy Birthday” from Mr Trump’s harmonically-challenged fans, whose rendition of the tune dissolved into a slurred mess by the conclusion.

But it was also revealing in that it previewed the roughshod defence that Mr Trump and his legal team apparently hope to make before a judge, as the former president aimed a shotgun-like spray of similar accusations at nearly every other prominent occupant of the White House of the past decade and a half.

So what can we learn from the former president’s remarks?

My colleague John Bowden explains:

Fox News host John Roberts apologised to viewers during a broadcast on Tuesday afternoon after the network mistakenly misidentified a woman as Donald Trump’s wife Melania.

As the network was broadcasting a live feed of Miami, Florida where Mr Trump was arraigned in his federal indictment, they put the spotlight on a woman with long hair wearing large sunglasses.

Clemence Michallon writes:

Trump isn’t just being arraigned, he is being arraigned again. This should make these new proceedings more damning, not less, than the first, and yet, I worry that some might experience today with a sense of deja vu. And with that sense of deja vu might come a slight dulling of our experience as witnesses to that event. We might, already, be getting used to it — seeing the former president turn up in court, speculating as to whether he will pose for a booking photo, waiting to hear his plea.

Fox News identified President Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator” in a wildly misleading caption on Tuesday night while simultaniously airing former President Donald Trump’s speech to supporters at his Bedminster golf club New Jersey and Mr Biden’s remarks at the White House.

Abe Asher has the details.