Holly MatkinMiami, FL – Former President Donald Trump was placed under arrest by the US Marshals Service (USMS) on 37 federal charges after his arrival at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Federal Courthouse in downtown Miami on Tuesday afternoon.
President Trump showed up at the courthouse, located at 400 North Miami Avenue, well ahead of his 3 p.m. appearance before Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, CNN reported.
He submitted to electronic fingerprinting and entered not guilty pleas on all 37 counts.
President Trump fired off an angry post on Truth Social ahead of the hearing, denouncing the U.S. Department of Justice and special counsel Jack Smith.
“This is the Thug, over turned consistently and unanimously in big cases, that Biden and his CORRUPT Injustice Department stuck on me,” the post read. “He’s a Radical Right Lunatic and Trump Hater, as are all his friends and family, who probably ‘planted’ information in the ‘boxes’ given to them. They taint everything that they touch, including our Country, which is rapidly going to HELL!”
Miami officials had been preparing for the hearing since June 8, when President Trump announced he had been indicted and that he was facing an impending court hearing in Miami.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” he said in a statement that night. “I am an innocent man. I did nothing wrong.”
President Trump said he still has absolutely no intention “whatsoever” of dropping out of the 2024 Presidential race, the Associated Press reported.
The indictment, which was unsealed by the Justice Department on June 9, charged President Trump with 37 felony counts, the Associated Press reported.
Thirty-one of those charges related to the willful retention of national defense information, according to the news outlet.
The former President has also been indicted on charges of false statements and conspiracy to commit obstruction, the Associated Press reported.
His aide, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, has also been charged in connection with the allegations, CNN reported.
Miami Police Department (MPD) Chief Manuel Morales said the city bulked up its law enforcement presence in anticipation of potential conflict and uprisings, but that he was hopeful any demonstrations would remain peaceful, The Guardian reported.
“Make no mistake about it, we’re taking this event extremely seriously, and there’s a potential for things to take a turn for the worse,” Chief Morales said.
He noted that violence is “not the Miami way,” but that the city had to prepare to respond to a worst-case scenario, The Guardian reported.
“We’re bringing enough resources to handle crowds, anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000,” Chief Morales said. “We don’t expect any issues. We’re ready. Ready for it to be over and done.”
He said officers would be diverting traffic and potentially blocking off streets depending on the size of the crowds, according to the Associated Press.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said on Monday he had “full faith and confidence our police will have the right action plan and resources in place,” The Guardian reported.
“We are prepared for what will happen tomorrow,” he added.
President Trump flew to Miami from Bedminster, New Jersey, on Monday, The Guardian reported.
He spent the night at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club.
Meanwhile, President Trump’s supporters from other areas around Florida boarded buses to head to the courthouse to protest the proceedings, the Associated Press reported.
A line of people hoping for a seat in the courtroom began forming outside the courthouse on Monday afternoon, according to the Miami Herald.
Doral Police Department Chief Edwin Lopez told CNN on Tuesday the crowds outside the Trump resort were calm overnight.
Chief Lopez said there were “no more than 80 to 100 people at any single time.”
President Trump scheduled a press conference to take place in New Jersey after his court appearance and is expected to publicly respond to the charges at that time, the Associated Press reported.
The indictment marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president has faced federal charges.
The case was investigated by special counsel and involved allegations President Trump mishandled classified documents brought to his resort in Mar-a-Lago after President Joe Biden took over the White House in 2021, CNN reported.
The investigation also involved looking into allegations President Trump obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve the classified documents and that he tried to obstruct the investigation itself.
Thousands of documents were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago resort in August of 2022, CNN reported.
Approximately 100 of those documents were allegedly marked as classified.
The federal indictment is just one of the criminal cases President Trump is currently facing.
The twice-impeached former President pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of first-degree falsifying business records in New York in April.
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict the former President on March 30 after hearing testimony about hush money payments allegedly authorized by President Trump back in 2016, before he was elected, WNBC reported.
Prosecutors launched the investigation into what became the scandal over porn star Stormy Daniels in 2018 after the President’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, claimed he paid her $130,000 on his client’s behalf ahead of the Presidential election.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging President Trump in 2019 even though Cohen implicated him in his own plea deal, FOX News reported.
And the Federal Election Commission (FEC) dropped its investigation into the alleged hush payments in 2021.
Two more investigations into the former President remain ongoing, according to CNN.
