Donald Trump, charged with keeping confidential documents after leaving the White House, will appear in a Miami court on Tuesday, a case that is at this stage the most dangerous for the former Republican president targeted by several investigations.
The billionaire, who aims to return to power in 2024, faces no less than 37 charges, including “illegal retention of information relating to national security”, “obstructing justice” and “false testimony”.
In the boxes of documents he kept — some of which were stored in a bathroom — included classified information about nuclear weapons, according to the 44-page indictment revealed Friday.
Violating national security laws “puts our country in danger,” said special prosecutor Jack Smith, a known tough lawman who oversaw the months-long investigation.
The real estate magnate loudly denounces a “witch hunt” aimed at hindering his presidential candidacy and accuses “the radical left” of being behind his setbacks.
If for the moment his camp closes ranks, right-wing personalities do not hesitate to judge the case without appeal.
Thus his former Minister of Justice Bill Barr, who has become one of his detractors, said on Sunday he was “shocked by the degree of sensitivity” of the documents seized from the ex-president.
“If only half of this is true, then it’s toast,” he told Fox News. “It’s a very, very detailed indictment. And it’s very, very damning.”
This is the first time that a former US president has been charged at the federal level. But Donald Trump has already been charged with several accounting frauds by New York State justice, in connection with a payment made before the 2016 presidential election to silence an X-film actress who claims to have been his mistress. A less solid legal case.
The former president landed Monday afternoon in Miami, where he is expected the next day at 3:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT) in federal court. According to one of his lawyers, he should plead not guilty.
He announced himself last week that he was summoned to court on Tuesday, the day before his 77th birthday.
In the United States, a law obliges presidents to transmit all their e-mails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Another, on espionage, prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
In January 2021, when he left the White House to settle in his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump had however taken away dozens of boxes full of files. Before, according to the indictment, to do everything to keep them despite repeated requests from the courts.
What impact will this case have on his chances of becoming the Republicans’ nominee for President? Many of his supporters continue to swear their support to him, convinced that he is the victim of a plot.
According to a recent CBS News/YouGov poll, three-quarters of voters likely to vote in the Republican primaries believe the charges against Mr. Trump are politically motivated.
But the fact that this indictment is linked to national defense could harm him.
Donald Trump is probably not done with legal problems. A Georgia prosecutor must indeed announce by September the result of her investigation into the pressure he exerted to try to change the result of the 2020 presidential election.
In Miami, the authorities have reinforced security to deal with any overflow in the event of a demonstration, after calls on social networks to defend Mr. Trump.
After his appearance, the latter must leave for New Jersey, where he will deliver a speech from his Bedminster golf club at 8:15 p.m. local time.
06/12/2023 22:10:49 – Miami (AFP) – © 2023 AFP