Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them.
Trump’s plea, entered before US Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman in a federal court in Miami, sets up a legal battle likely to play out over coming months as he campaigns to win back the presidency in a November 2024 election. Experts say it could be a year or more before a trial takes place.
Trump was allowed to leave court without conditions or travel restrictions and no cash bond was required. Goodman ruled that Trump was not allowed to communicate with potential witnesses in the case.
Trump’s former aide Walt Nauta, also charged in the case, pleaded not guilty as well, the Associated Press reported.
The hearing was closed to cameras and live broadcasts.
It was the second courtroom visit for Trump in recent months. In April, he pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Trump is the first former president to be charged with federal crimes.
Supporters wearing Make America Great Again hats and carrying American flags chanted “Miami for Trump” and “Latinos for Trump” as the motorcade paused outside the courthouse. A man could be heard chanting, “USA! USA!”
Authorities had prepared for possible violence, recalling the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, but Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told reporters that there had not been any security problems.
Trump has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and accuses Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration of targeting him. He called Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, a “Trump hater” on social media on Tuesday.
“One of the saddest days in the history of our country. we are a nation in decline!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform shortly before his motorcade left the Trump Doral hotel for the courthouse.
Smith accuses Trump of risking national secrets by taking thousands of sensitive papers with him when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate and his New Jersey golf club, according to a grand jury indictment released last week.
Photos included in the indictment show boxes of documents stored on a ballroom stage, in a bathroom and strewn across a storage-room floor.
Those records included information about the secretive US nuclear programme and potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the indictment said.
The 37-count indictment alleges Trump lied to officials who tried to get them back.
The indictment also alleges Trump conspired with Nauta to keep classified documents and hide them from a federal grand jury. Nauta has worked for Trump at the White House and at Mar-a-Lago.
VIDEO: Former US president Donald Trump briefly appears in Miami court:
