Donald Trump blasted “the most evil and heinous abuse of power” after pleading not guilty to federal charges in a Miami courthouse on Tuesday, as he sought to turn his legal woes into political gain heading into the 2024 election.
Trump delivered the tirade from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Tuesday night after returning from Florida where he became the first former president to be federally indicted.
The former president lashed out at the Biden administration, accusing it of a politically motivated pursuit, targeted prosecutors leading the case and vowed to exact revenge against members of the “deep state” that brought him to court.
“Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country . . . It’s a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation,” Trump said.
The former president then raised the political stakes and turned to next year’s race for the White House, in which he is the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
“When I’m re-elected, and we will get re-elected . . . I will totally obliterate the deep state. We will obliterate the deep state and we know who they are,” he said. “On November 5 2024, justice will be done.”
Trump’s inflammatory words came after he faced some of the most serious criminal charges related to national security that federal prosecutors can bring, including the wilful retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office.
Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by attorney-general Merrick Garland to oversee investigations into the former president, brought the case and was present in the courtroom in Miami.
It was the second time this year that Trump was forced to enter a plea in connection with criminal charges after he was separately indicted by Manhattan prosecutors in March for allegedly falsifying business records.
The television footage of Trump’s Secret Service motorcade travelling to court along a closed stretch of highway in Florida was strikingly similar to the scenes that unfolded in New York just over 10 weeks ago.
Trump entered the Miami courthouse on Tuesday at about 2pm after travelling from his resort hotel in nearby Doral. He was arrested upon arrival and departed roughly two hours later. After the hearing, he stopped at a popular Cuban restaurant in Miami, Versailles, where he greeted supporters who sang “Happy Birthday”. He turns 77 on Wednesday.
After Trump’s court appearance, protesters for and against him gathered and in some cases scuffled outside the courthouse, waving flags and chanting slogans.
Legal experts said they were surprised by the breadth of evidence laid out in the Department of Justice case unsealed last week, which includes charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing documents in a federal investigation and making false statements.
The indictment alleges that Trump illegally moved classified material to his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, residence after leaving the White House in 2021 and subsequently lied during the government’s investigation into the records.
Trump showed sensitive records such as a US “plan of attack” against a foreign country to visitors while admitting it was a “secret”, prosecutors alleged.
The indictment included photographs of boxes of classified documents stacked in a bathroom and a shower, a ballroom and a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, his estate that is also a bustling events venue.
Trump insisted on Tuesday that he had “every right” to hold on to the documents, claiming he had “absolute declassification authority” even though that power only applied when he was president.
No travel restrictions were imposed on Trump, although he was instructed not to speak to potential witnesses in the case.
The case will be heard by Aileen Cannon, a federal judge nominated to the bench by Trump. Last year, she granted his request for a “special master” to review the records seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago, although that decision was overturned by an appeals court.
Another defendant has been charged: Waltine Nauta, a former White House valet who later became Trump’s assistant. Nauta was not arraigned on Tuesday since he did not have a local attorney to represent him.
If Trump is convicted, the maximum prison term for each count ranges from five to 20 years. But experts said he was unlikely to serve that much prison time, if he is jailed at all.
There could be more legal complications to come. Smith is overseeing a separate investigation into alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election, as is Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton county, Georgia.
Joe Biden, the Democratic president who has said he will run again, is facing a separate investigation by another special counsel over classified material found in his residential garage in Delaware and a former private office in Washington.
Many of Trump’s usual political allies have come to his defence since the indictment, but others were more circumspect. Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, refused to be drawn on questions about Trump at his weekly press conference on Tuesday, telling reporters: “I am just simply going to stay out of it.”
Additional reporting by Lauren Fedor
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