Donald Trump back in court. The former president of the United States is summoned this Tuesday before a judge in Miami, Florida. He is indicted for his negligent handling of classified records after leaving the White House and for obstructing justice in the case. This is the first time that a former US president has been charged at the federal level.
• What he is acussed?
Donald Trump is the subject of thirty-seven charges. The US justice system accuses him of having taken thousands of documents with him, many of them confidential, some with information on nuclear weapons, after leaving power.
In the United States, a law requires presidents to transmit all their emails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Another, on espionage, prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and insecure places.
According to the indictment, after leaving the White House, Donald Trump also twice showed top-secret military documents, possibly a plan to attack Iran, to various people without a secret defense clearance.
The court also accuses the 76-year-old billionaire of refusing to return most of these documents despite multiple reminders from the FBI.
“The laws are the same for everyone,” prosecutor Jack Smith said Friday.
• What did the survey reveal?
In January 2021, when he left the White House to settle in his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump took dozens of boxes full of files with him.
According to the indictment, they remained piled up on the stage of a “dance hall”, before being transported to a “warehouse” accessible from the swimming pool, where certain documents marked “secret defense” had been seen lying on the floor.
In January 2022, after several reminders, Donald Trump agreed to return boxes containing nearly 200 classified documents to the National Archives. In June of the same year, other documents were returned, and the team of the Republican billionaire assures that these are the last.
Except another 34 boxes of documents are still hidden in Mar-a-Lago. Still convinced of his disappearance, the FBI agents had carried out a spectacular search of this residence on August 8 and had seized about thirty more boxes, containing 11,000 documents.
• How will the hearing proceed?
Thus, the former president faces thirty-seven charges, including “illegal withholding of information related to national security,” “obstruction of justice,” and “false testimony.”
As CNN points out, once in court, Donald Trump will first pass through the hands of the police, here the FBI, and will be subject to questioning. He must be treated like any other accused person and must, for example, give his fingerprints.
You will then appear with your lawyers before the judge. This is where he will be formally charged. During this first hearing, the Republican will not have to give explanations on the merits but, as his lawyer announced, he will only have to plead not guilty to all charges.
The judge may also set bail and decide to remand a defendant during the trial. However, as it is written The GuardianSince Donald Trump isn’t a flight risk that would require his arrest, he’ll probably just have to surrender his passport. Finally, at the end of this session, the judge will set a schedule for the rest of the trial.
• Does this impact your candidacy?
The former president does not stop repeating that he is the victim of a political cabal and has always called this file a “witch hunt” aimed at hindering his presidential candidacy.
“If he wasn’t (candidate), there would be no witch hunt, there would be no impeachment,” Donald Trump said Saturday.
“The baseless accusation against me by the (Joe) Biden administration’s instrumentalized Ministry of Injustice will rank among the most horrendous abuses of power in the history of our country,” he said, launching, calling the current president’s camp a “band”. of thugs”.
For obstructing a federal investigation by destroying, falsifying, or concealing documents, 18 United States Code Section 1519 provides a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
But in the United States, being accused and even convicted of an offense or a crime does not prohibit you from running for office, being elected, or holding office. “Can Trump campaign even in prison? Yes and it has already been done,” said Politico, who takes over from the previous Eugene Victor Debs.
In 1920, this candidate for the Socialist Party of America ran for president from his cell in Atlanta, Georgia and polled nearly a million votes.
• How are Donald Trump’s supporters reacting?
This hearing, with explosive political potential, arouses security fears on the part of the Miami authorities, after calls on social networks to defend the former tenant of the White House.
“Take your flags, your hats, your Trump shirts, your megaphones and your love for President Trump,” says one of the calls for a peaceful protest.
“We take this event very seriously,” Florida Police Chief Manuel Morales said at a news conference Monday.
Miami’s mayor said there could be 5,000 to 50,000 Trump supporters around the courthouse Tuesday at the time of the hearing. Therefore, security has been strengthened, but the authorities do not detect any identified threats. However, they are closely monitoring a possible meeting of proud boysa far-right group that was on the front lines during the invasion of the Capitol.
According to a press release, Donald Trump will address his supporters from one of the golf courses he owns in New Jersey at 8:15 p.m. local time (that is, Wednesday night at 2:15 p.m. French time), after this first hearing. . The same thing he had done after his appearance in New York in April, in connection with another case.
• What other cases are you involved in?
Because this is not the only investigation that targets the former president. At the beginning of April, Donald Trump was already accused of having paid a large sum -with the funds of his then presidential campaign- to Stormy Daniels to buy the silence of this pornographic film actress who he claims to have been his. lover.
A Georgia state attorney has been investigating “attempts to influence electoral operations” in this southern state since 2021, won by Joe Biden in 2020. In a phone call, the recording of which has been made public, Donald Trump asked a senior local official to “find” nearly 12,000 ballots in his name.
In addition, the Trump Organization was fined in New York up to $1.6 million for tax and financial fraud, ahead of a trial in the fall. Donald Trump is also involved in the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.
• How does Joe Biden react?
The current president continues to opt for silence. Asked by a journalist about possible contact with his Justice Minister Merrick Garland, after this second accusation by his predecessor and also a rival for 2024, Joe Biden only dropped two sentences:
“I haven’t talked to him at all and I won’t talk to him. And I have no comment on that.”
Faced with the Republican billionaire who shouts “witch hunt”, the American president continues to count on the cinematographic effect that he already experienced in early April during the first and spectacular appearance of Donald Trump in New York, this time in a case of financial embezzlement.
That effect is the “split screen”, the split screen: while Donald Trump prepares to appear again on Tuesday in Miami, Joe Biden intends to show that he is working, although this Monday he has been forced to clear his schedule due to dental problems. surgery.
Source: BFM TV
