Former President Donald Trump thanked his South Florida supporters Tuesday afternoon in his first statement after pleading not guilty to charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
“Thank you Miami. Such a warm welcome on such a SAD DAY for our Country!,” Trump, 76, said on his Truth Social account after leaving the downtown courthouse and stopping to greet supporters at the iconic Versailles Cuban restaurant.
The 45th president traveled by motorcade to appear before Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman after receiving word June 8 that he had been indicted.
Trump and Walt Nauta, his co-defendant, valet and former White House military aide, were booked by authorities at the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. U.S. Courthouse.
Nauta’s arraignment was postponed by two weeks due to his inability to secure local counsel. A Trump-aligned group is covering his legal expenses.
Prosecutors do not consider the former president and his body man to be flight risks and they won’t be limited in their travel. Trump and Nauta can also communicate, though not about the case against them.
Special Counsel Jack Smith hit the 45th president with 31 counts of improperly retaining classified material, saying in the indictment that Trump had also obstructed justice and lied to officials who requested the documents.
Nauta was charged with six counts of also concealing documents and making false statements.
The two allegedly worked together to shift boxes that contained the classified documents around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office, temporarily housing them in a ballroom, bedroom and bathroom by turns.
At one point, prosecutors say, Nauta transferred dozens of boxes from a basement storage room to the resort’s private residence at Trump’s direction — without informing the former president’s attorneys of the move.
Trump also showed off some of the documents to people without security clearances during meetings at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J.
He was captured on tape admitting the material was classified and that he shouldn’t be sharing it, according to the indictment.
Trump lashed out at the special prosecutor in the case and his 2020 opponent President Biden on Tuesday before his court appearance, calling Smith “Deranged” and the president’s Justice Department “CORRUPT.”
Trump is the first sitting or former president to be charged with a federal crime.
President Biden, 80, is currently facing his own federal investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified documents from his time as a vice president and US senator.
“Joe Biden himself retained possession of classified documents that have not been prosecuted,” Trump lawyer and spokeswoman Alina Habba said in a statement to members of the press assembled outside the court, echoing criticisms from Republicans that Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton improperly retained classified information.
“The decision to pursue charges against President Trump while turning a blind eye to others is emblematic of the corruption that we have here,” Habba went on. “We are at a turning point in our nation’s history. The targeting prosecution of a leading political opponent is the type of thing you see in dictatorships, like Cuba and Venezuela. It is commonplace there for rival candidates to be prosecuted, persecuted and put into jail.”
“What is being done to President Trump should terrify all citizens of this country. These are not the ideals that our democracy is founded upon. This is not our America,” she said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the indictment Tuesday during a press briefing.
“I’m not going to speak directly to the case,” she said. “What I can say, and you’ve heard us say this over and over again — this is a president that respects the rule of law.”
Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc, also slammed ABC News, CBS News and NBC News in a statement for having given “[z]ero seconds” of coverage to an alleged $5 million bribery scheme involving Biden, his son Hunter and the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings.