Ex-US President Trump Under Arrest
Donald Trump, the former president of the United States (US), was arrested at the federal courthouse in Miami, Florida, and will be arraigned on charges related to mishandling classified documents shortly.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, deputy marshals booked the former president and obtained electronic copies of his fingerprints.
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Given his recognizability, they were not expected to take a mugshot of Trump, according to an American broadcaster.
Walt Nauta, his associate and co-defendant, has also been arrested, fingerprinted, and processed.
The criminal charges in the Justice Department’s classified documents case heighten the legal peril surrounding the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024.
Tuesday’s 3 p.m. ET (8 p.m. Nigerian time) hearing in Miami will likely be procedural in nature. Trump will enter a plea, the terms of his pretrial release will be discussed, and it is possible that potential restrictions on Trump’s conduct as the case progresses will be brought up.
Trump faces 37 felony counts, including allegations that he illegally retained national defence information and concealed documents in violation of witness-tampering laws during an investigation by the Justice Department into the materials.
His close aide, Nauta, was also charged in the indictment, which was unsealed on Friday. According to the indictment, the two men conspired to obstruct the federal investigation. Nauta will also be present in court.
Tuesday, Trump departed his resort at Doral in his motorcade, accompanied by Nauta in a separate vehicle. As Trump entered his vehicle, a bystander asked him how he felt. Trump responded with “great” and a wave.
Before heading to court, Trump posted on social media that it was “ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE!!!”
Before last week’s federal indictment, Trump faced criminal charges brought by New York City’s local prosecutors for an alleged hush money scheme involving falsified business records during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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Trump could face several years in prison if he is ultimately convicted of the new charges in the DOJ documents case, which are significantly more serious.
Trump is charged with thirty-one counts of willful retention of national defence information, regardless of whether the documents are classified. In addition to the obstruction conspiracy, he is charged with four counts of document concealment and one count of making false statements.
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