June 13, 2023 Trump pleads not guilty in historic federal indictment

Our live coverage of former President Donald Trump's indictment and court appearance has moved here.

Former President Donald Trump, who was indicted by the Department of Justice over potential mishandling of classified documents, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Trump was arraigned Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Miami. He has been charged with 37 counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. It's the first time in American history that a former president has faced federal charges.

See photos from the historic day:

Former President Donald Trump began his remarks Tuesday night in Bedminster, New Jersey, by slamming the administration of President Joe Biden over his indictment for the alleged mishandling of classified documents.

“Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country," he said to a crowd of supporters. "Very sad thing to watch, a corrupt sitting president had his top political opponent arrested on fake and fabricated charges of which he and numerous other presidents would be guilty, right in the middle of a presidential election in which he’s losing very badly."

Earlier Tuesday in Florida, Trump was arrested in a historic arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse where he pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal charges.

Trump is the first former president to face federal charges and was arrested and booked alongside his aide and co-defendant, Walt Nauta. 

This indictment comes just months after Trump was charged by a Manhattan grand jury in a separate hush-money case. 

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat's office sent teams to the federal courthouse in Miami where former President Donald Trump was arraigned Tuesday, he told CNN.

Teams were also sent to Trump’s previous New York court appearance to prepare in case an indictment of the former president should happen in Fulton County.  

“We’re being very proactive about our approach,” Labat told CNN affiliate WSB TV in an on-camera interview. “We’re doing a really good job of reading tomorrow’s newspaper today, understanding what safety and security looks like so we are prepared holistically.  

Labat described the visits as “an opportunity to learn and make sure we are equally prepared.”

In a statement Tuesday, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said it is "coordinating with local, state, and federal agencies to ensure that our law enforcement community is equipped and prepared to protect the public."

"That coordination includes FCSO deputies traveling to New York and Miami to gather intel on security operations at court proceedings for former President Donald Trump. No additional details about security operations or procedures are available at this time,” the statement read. 

Some background: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis oversaw a special grand jury investigating what Trump or his allies may have done in their efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia.

Willis, a Democrat, is considering bringing conspiracy and racketeering charges.

The probe was launched in 2021 following Trump’s call that January with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he pushed the Republican to “find” votes to overturn the election results.

CNN’s Nick Valencia and Alta Spells contributed reporting

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 37 charges related to alleged mishandling of classified documents.

His lawyers asked for a jury trial during the former president’s historic arraignment. “We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the judge.

Trump’s aide and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, was also arrested, fingerprinted and processed.

No cameras were permitted in the courtroom. But sketch artists were able to capture the scene.

Donald Trump can still run as president while indicted — or if he is convicted.

“Nothing stops Trump from running while indicted, or even convicted,” the University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard Hasen has told CNN.

The Constitution requires only three things of candidates: They must be a natural born citizen, at least 35 years old and a resident of the US for at least 14 years.

There are a few other Constitutional restrictions that can block a person for running for president — but they don't apply to Trump:

Term limits: The 22nd Amendment forbids anyone who has twice been president — meaning twice been elected or served half of someone else’s term and then won his or her own — from running again. That doesn’t apply to former President Donald Trump since he lost the 2020 election.

Impeachment: If a person is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate of high crimes and misdemeanors, he or she is removed from office and disqualified from serving again. Trump, although twice impeached by the House during his presidency, was also twice acquitted by the Senate.

Disqualification: The 14th Amendment includes a “disqualification clause,” written specifically with an eye toward former Confederate soldiers.

It reads:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

The indictment in New York City with regard to the hush-money payments to an adult-film star has nothing to do with rebellion or insurrection. Federal charges related to classified documents likely do not either.

Potential charges in Fulton County, Georgia, with regard to 2020 election meddling or at the federal level with regard to the January 6, 2021, insurrection could perhaps be construed by some as a form of insurrection. But that is an open question that would have to work its way through the courts. The 2024 election is fast approaching.

Authorities arrested one protestor at the Miami courthouse where former President Donald Trump was arraigned Tuesday, according to a law enforcement source.

The person arrested jumped in front of Trump’s motorcade with a protest sign, the source said. 

A spokesperson with the Miami Police Department confirmed that the man who ran in front of the motorcade was the only person arrested outside the federal courthouse Tuesday.

Federal judge Aileen Cannon entered the public spotlight last summer when she oversaw court proceedings related to the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Now, the Trump-appointed federal judge is expected to oversee the former president’s new federal criminal case in Miami. Cannon would have wide latitude to control timing and evidence in the case and be able to vet the Justice Department’s legal theory.

Trump nominated Cannon to the bench in May 2020, and the Senate confirmed her by a vote of 56-21 just days after the presidential election.

Cannon had largely stayed out of the national spotlight until she began handling the case the former president brought last year to challenge the Mar-a-Lago evidence collection. Her controversial decision to appoint a third-party “special master” to oversee the review of evidence gathered in the search was ultimately overturned by a conservative panel of judges on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which was critical of Cannon’s handling of the case.

That special master process had put the Justice Department’s investigation into the documents it obtained during the search on hold so the outside attorney could review the materials for any privilege issues.

“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote last year. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

Prior to taking office, Cannon served as an assistant US attorney in Florida, where she worked in the Major Crimes Division and as an appellate attorney, according to written answers she gave to the Senate during her confirmation process.

Following graduation from the University of Michigan Law School, Cannon clerked for a federal judge and later practiced law at a firm in Washington, DC, where she handled a range of cases, including some related to “government investigations,” according to her statements given to the Senate in 2020.

Most of Tuesday’s hearing, where former President Donald Trump made his first appearance in court facing 37 federal charges, followed an expected script – but the proceedings were dragged out by a disagreement over whether Trump should be restricted from talking to certain witnesses in the case.

That prohibition was not initially recommended in the bond proposal made by special counsel Jack Smith’s team. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman raised the concern himself.

Goodman, noting that this was a typical restriction in cases filed in the Southern District of Florida, where the indictment against Trump was brought, suggested that prosecutors put together a list of witnesses and victims and that Trump avoid communicating with them as the case moves forward.

The judge also said that for Trump’s co-defendant, Walt Nauta, the limitation would only be on communications about the case, with Goodman noting that Nauta works closely with Trump and is with him nearly every day.

Nauta, who did not enter a plea Tuesday since he did not have a local attorney, will be arraigned later this month. He faces six counts related to the classified documents investigation.

Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney, resisted the idea of barring all contact with the case’s witnesses, in a back-and-forth with the judge that played out over several rounds.

“Many of the people, including the men and women to protect him, may be witnesses in this case,” Blanche said. He said the restriction “isn’t appropriate” and “doesn’t work.”

Prosecutor David Harbach suggested that the Justice Department team would draft a list that would be “narrow in scope” – not “exhaustive” of all the witnesses prosecutors may call at trial – that would address the judge’s concerns about witness contact, while accommodating Trump’s situation.

Read more.