Former President Donald Trump appeared in the Miami courtroom for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Biden-appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Trump pleaded “not guilty” through his attorneys.
The judge granted Trump a pretrial release with no special conditions apart from not being allowed to contact witnesses.
Trump was charged with 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents.
If the 45th president is found guilty on all counts, he could face 400 years in prison.
Overseeing Trump’s arraignment was Judge Goodman, who did not allow cameras, phones, or electronic devices in the courtroom.
However, reporters relayed the intense atmosphere between Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith while inside the Miami courtroom.
Fox News reported:
“However, there was no apparent eye contact between Trump and Smith during the day’s proceedings. Trump sat with his arms folded most of the time, talking with his lawyers occasionally. But Trump did not speak, and Magistrate Judge Goodman never addressed him directly.”
“Judge Goodman asked both sides if they agreed to waive the reading of the indictment, to which they agreed, so the matter got to Trump’s arraignment fairly quickly. Most of the arguments from both sides were about Trump’s contact with potential witnesses, and the defense pointed out that they don’t even have a full list of witnesses yet,” the outlet added.
CNN’s Evan Perez said Trump did not seem thrilled to be there.
“He had a very serious look on his face, periodically had his arms folded,” Perez said.
“The former president entered the room probably about 30 or 40 minutes before the judge. We couldn’t see exactly when he entered the room because the televisions of the room that we were in were not turned on immediately, but we saw, you know, the lawyers take their seats and the former president sort of twiddling his thumbs while he waited for proceedings to take his place.”
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly showed classified documents to people who did not have security clearances.
The DOJ alleges that both instances occurred at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
The alleged incident was leaked to CNN.
The network reported that federal prosecutors had “obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.”
The charges against Trump include “willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations.”
“Maximum sentences for the respective charges, per their statutes, range from five up to 20 years, although any eventual sentence should Trump be convicted would likely be much lower,” ABC News reported.
Trump’s attorney Christina Bobb ripped Biden’s Justice Department earlier this week, saying her client was “100 percent” allowed to possess the classified materials he’s been indicted for having.
Bobb told Newsmax that Trump’s authorization comes from the Presidential Records Act, adding that the DOJ and FBI mistreated Trump compared to Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence – both of whom also had classified materials in their possession.
“Donald Trump was 100% authorized to keep everything he kept. And it was actually the Department of Justice that actually had to return materials because they took things they were not allowed to possess and had to return them,” Bobb noted further.
“President Trump had every right to have possession of those documents. And the only statute that applies to Donald Trump on this is the Presidential Records Act 44 U.S.C. Section 2203 Alpha, which specifically says the president and only the president is the one who has authority to make this call,” she told Newsmax.
“I think their case is dead on arrival,” she predicted.
READ: Judge Delivers Brutal Smackdown to Biden in Big Tech Censorship Case
