(CN) — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges Wednesday in his first court appearance on charges stemming from the hundreds of classified documents found at his private residence in Florida after leaving office.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman presided over the historic arraignment, ordering Trump not to discuss the case with any witnesses or with his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, who also entered a not-guilty plea. Such restrictions are common in criminal cases.
Trump arrived at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami with a new counsel after two members of his legal team, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, resigned Friday on the morning the federal indictment against him was unsealed. Todd Blanche, formerly of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, as well as Christopher Kise, a former solicitor general of Florida, have filled the roles left by Trusty and Rowley.
The indictment charges Trump with 31 counts for willfully retaining national security documents, which could land him a 10-year prison sentence if convicted.
He and Nauta are charged together on five counts related to obstruction and concealing documents — the obstruction charges carry a maximum of 20 years in prison and five for concealment, and each also faces an individual count for making false statements, which also carry maximum sentences of five years imprisonment.
As the case proceeds, it falls on the docket of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump tapped for the bench in 2020. Cannon has been involved in the case since the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago last August, facing widespread derision in the legal community for a move that would have hampered the government's investigation. That decision, considered the first major one of Cannon's career, was soon overturned by the 11th Circuit.
Outside the courthouse Tuesday, hundreds of Trump supporters and detractors faced tightened security for the first-of-its-kind spectacle of a former president being hauled into court on federal charges.
Trump supporters Taylor Bouland and Teresa Basely drove all the way from Central Florida.
“We are here to support our real president,” the friends said.
“We will always vote for and support Trump,” Bouland added.
On the other side of the courthouse was Tina, a Florida native, who energetically chanted for Trump among the crowd.
“Trump is the best president that we’ve ever had, besides Ronald Raegan and Abraham Lincoln," said Tina, who did not give a last name. “He grew the economy; he grew the jobs. He made America great again."
When asked about the charges made against Trump, she called them “bull.”
The unsealed indictment offers a narrative that Trump knew he was breaking the law by keeping the classified documents and that he actively sought to interfere with the FBI's investigation into his handling of them.
In one conversation obtained by prosecutors, Trump is quoted as sharing military plans to attack Iran with an unidentified writer visiting Mar-a-Lago.
“This is secret information … this was done by the military and given to me,” Trump tells the individual, according to the indictment. “See as president I could have declassified it … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still secret.”
The charging papers are also peppered with grainy photos in black and white, revealing that Trump had been storing the hundreds of classified documents in stacks of boxes scattered around various rooms of the Mar-a-Lago resort, including his office, an event space and even the shower of a bathroom.
Notes about Trump's conversations with his former attorney, Evan Corcoran, are particularly damaging to the defense.
“What happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?” Trump asked Corcoran in May 2022. “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
Though attorney-client privilege normally makes such conversations off-limits to prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the privilege was waived under the crime-fraud exception, which applies when a client is using legal advice to further a crime.
As Trump arrived at the federal courthouse to be fingerprinted and temporarily placed in custody prior to his hearing, critics of the former president were there to mark the moment.
One of them was Nadine Seiler, a registered Democrat originally from Trinidad and Tobago, who drove in from Maryland.
“I support Democracy of the rule of law," Seiler said. "America says that no one is above the law. We have a judicial system, and they have gathered enough evidence to indict him.
“Trump allowed thousands of people to die from Covid due to his negligence,” she added.
Absent any delays, Trump's trial could wind up being scheduled before the 2024 election in which he remains a frontrunner among Republicans vying to unseat the incumbent President Joe Biden.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis still trails Trump by a large margin in polling but is considered his toughest opposition in the bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Outside the courthouse Tuesday afternoon, the former president's supporters proved a testament to the strong grip Trump has on Republican voters.
Damian and his wife from Cuba said they have always been Trump supporters, and intended to vote for him in the upcoming Republican primaries.
“I don’t think that DeSantis can win for president. He’s a RINO. Trump endorsed him and helped him. And he’s betraying Trump,” said Damian, who declined to give his last name.
A voter from North Miami Beach was similarly dismissive of his governor.
“DeSantis should’ve waited four more years, and he would have been perfect," said Skip, who would not give a last name. "But now he let the cat out of the bag, and I don’t think is gonna help him. I think it was a political mistake from him to run for president."
Trump separately faces a state prosecution in New York related to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Other criminal probes implicating the president involve his incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and the pressure he put on Georgia election officials after the 2020 election to find more votes so he could masquerade as the winner.
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