Arraignment in classified documents case

Trump can be accompanied by Florida-based lawyer Chris Kise at the previous president’s expected arraignment, in line with sources accustomed to the plans. The event appears to resolve a key outstanding issue across the court proceedings Tuesday at what can be the beginning of the primary ever trial of a former U.S. president on federal criminal charges.

Trump’s two lead lawyers on the case each resigned abruptly on Friday, in the future after the federal government informed them that their client can be charged with 31 counts of willfully retaining a national security document and 6 other counts of related to alleged efforts to withhold documents, make false statements or obstruct justice.

The attorneys’ departure left the previous president scrambling over the weekend to seek out a lawyer who was approved to argue cases within the Southern District of Florida, where the fees were brought. With no Florida-based attorney to file motions within the case, there have been concerns that Trump’s arraignment is perhaps delayed.

Kise, a former solicitor general of Florida, has been a part of Trump’s larger legal team since 2022. But shortly after joining Trump’s team, he was reportedly sidelined from the classified documents case.

Trump can also be being represented by Recent York-based attorney Todd Blanche, who traveled to Florida on Monday with the previous president. It was unclear Tuesday morning whether Kise, Blanche, or each men would accompany Trump into court.

— Christina Wilkie

The judge assigned to the previous president’s federal criminal case is a Trump appointee who stirred controversy over her involvement in a previous matter related to the classified documents scandal.

Judge Aileen Cannon last 12 months temporarily blocked the Justice Department from reviewing the documents seized within the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago and granted Trump’s request to have a special master examine the records.

Some legal experts balked at Cannon’s rulings in that case. A federal appeals court overturned her order to appoint a special master, ending the review.

The Recent York Times reported that Cannon was assigned Trump’s criminal case randomly, as is the same old process. But Cannon has already faced calls to recuse herself.

— Kevin Breuninger

The federal magistrate judge overseeing Trump’s arraignment has barred any photos or videos from being taken within the courtroom or the skin corridor prior to the previous president’s appearance.

A coalition of greater than a dozen local and national media outlets, including NBC Universal, had asked Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman on Monday to allow “a limited variety of photographs and videorecordings” before the arraignment.

In addition they asked the court to instantly release audio recordings of the proceedings to the general public. “It is a case of outstanding public interest to all the country and beyond,” the coalition wrote in a court filing.

In an order Monday night, Goodman denied each requests.

“The Press Coalition argues that tomorrow’s first appearance and arraignment are ‘special proceedings,’ however the Undersigned shouldn’t be convinced,” Goodman ruled.

“I follow the ‘stay in your lane’ philosophy,” Goodman wrote, noting that his involvement with the case will likely end after the arraignment, when it’s handed off to Judge Aileen Cannon.

“I don’t feel it is acceptable for me to rule on what happens in future proceedings once I am not the district court judge and once I can have no involvement in any way,” he wrote.

Goodman also cited court rules that broadly prohibit “all forms” of recording within the district court.

— Kevin Breuninger

Special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of former President Trump is full of detail and evidence, but there’s probably more. Quite a bit more, in line with Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor who’s taking over Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“What I can let you know, obviously, I learn about that indictment, is there’s probably a couple of third of the evidence they really have is in that indictment,” the previous Recent Jersey governor and one-time Trump ally said during a CNN town hall Monday night. “If you’re a prosecutor, you never put every card on the table before the trial.”

Christie, a longshot for the nomination, has nonetheless decided to run so he can directly attack Trump and help keep him from running against President Biden in next 12 months’s general election. Early polls show that Trump is the clear leader in the first field.

– Mike Calia

Trump is planning to go to his golf club in Bedminster, Recent Jersey for a presidential fundraiser after his arraignment in a Miami courtroom on federal charges that he kept reams of classified documents.

Trump can be return to his golf course in a while Tuesday for a 2024 campaign fundraiser that calls on donors to to lift or give $100,000 for the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee. That quantity allows contributors to have a “private candlelight dinner” with the previous president and to affix a VIP reception with “elected officials & special guests,” in line with an invitation to the event.

Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks from his property just after 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

— Brian Schwartz

A federal grand jury has returned an unprecedented indictment against a singular, and singularly positioned, politician leading an unusual presidential primary race.

So the best way the case plays out on the campaign trail is anyone’s guess.

It might be natural to assume, for example, that being accused of crimes would damage a candidate’s political standing. But keep in mind that Trump has already been indicted by prosecutors in Manhattan since entering the 2024 Republican primary race, and people charges — 34 counts of falsifying business records — don’t appear to have diminished his overall lead within the polls.

For the reason that latest indictment, a lot of Trump’s Republican allies have issued statements defending him, or at the very least criticizing the Justice Department’s actions. Republicans have lobbed a typical suggestion that the agency under the Biden administration has change into politicized or “weaponized.” Even a few of Trump’s primary opponents have joined in that chorus.

Some recent polling after the indictment has yielded polarizing results. An ABC News/Ipsos survey conducted Friday and Saturday found almost half of Americans consider Trump must have been indicted — but nearly the identical percentage said they think the fees against him are politically motivated.

Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to remain within the race even when he’s convicted. And he’s reportedly set to host a campaign fundraiser just hours after his indictment.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump kept a trove of classified documents from several federal agencies at his expansive Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in line with an indictment unsealed on Friday.

Federal prosecutors allege in a 49-page indictment that Trump had documents with details on “defense and weapons capabilities of each the USA and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the USA and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.”

Prosecutors added that Trump’s alleged unauthorized disclosure of the classified documents “could put in danger the national security of the USA, foreign relations, the protection of the USA military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”

The indictment doesn’t reveal further details of what the documents contain beyond general descriptions, given their classified nature.

The documents present in Trump’s possession contained intelligence assessments from the Pentagon, National Reconnaissance Office, CIA, NSA and the Department of Energy, which oversees America’s nuclear weapons arsenal, in line with the indictment.

The 37-count criminal indictment adds that Trump kept the classified documents in his bedroom, bathroom, ballroom, office and storage room, all while hosting greater than 150 social events “that drew tens of hundreds of guests” to the property.

During an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August, 102 documents with classification markings were seized from Trump’s office and storage room. Of those, 17 were denoted as “top secret,” the best intelligence classification level. One other 54 documents were labeled as “secret,” in line with a tally included within the indictment.

— Amanda Macias

The historic first federal indictment of a former president charges Trump with seven different crimes spanning 37 counts.

Trump is accused of unlawfully taking dozens of documents related to U.S. national defense and storing them at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence and personal club, Mar-a-Lago. Lots of those documents bore “TOP SECRET” or other classification markings. At the least two of them reference nuclear information, in line with the indictment.

Thirty-one of the counts against Trump fall under this charge, often known as the Espionage Act, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years, in line with prosecutors.

Trump can also be charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing documents and making false statements. The fees of obstruction and concealing and withholding documents all bear 20-year maximum prison sentences, while the fees of scheming to hide and making false statements carry 5-year prison maximums, in line with the indictment.

Listed below are all the fees Trump — and his aide Walt Nauta, who can also be charged within the indictment — face within the special counsel’s case:

• Willful retention of national defense information: 31 counts against Trump
• Conspiracy to obstruct justice: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Withholding a document or record: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Corruptly concealing a document or record: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Concealing a document in a federal investigation: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Scheme to hide: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• False statements and representations: 1 count against Trump
• False statements and representations: 1 count against Nauta

— Kevin Breuninger