Up next
Elliot Tebele Net Worth
The sweeping glass front of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami was designed to represent transparency and equality before the law.
At 2:56pm on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump sat in courtroom 13-3. He unfolded his arms and stood as U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman called the court to order.
His nemesis, Jack Smith, the war crimes prosecutor-turned-Trump hunter, stood a few feet away.
‘We are here folks,’ said Goodman, ‘ for case number 23-80101, the U.S. versus Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta.’
Unlike other chapters in Trump’s rollercoaster public life, there were no cameras present except for a single videographer beaming proceedings to an overflow room for unlucky journalists who had not snagged a lottery seat in the courtroom itself.
Donald Trump appeared in Miami’s federal court on Tuesday afternoon. He was flanked by his lawyers Todd Blanche (left) and Christopher Kise (on the right of the picture). The figure on the far left in Walt Naut, a long-time aide who has also been charged in th case
And unlike other twists and turns, the former president himself did not say a word as he was formally charged except to confer in a whisper with his lawyer.
It was all over in 48 minutes. Trump’s team entered a plea of not guilty to federal criminal charges that he kept national-security documents after leaving office and lied to officials who tried to recover them.
His aide, Nauta, did not even enter a plea because his lawyer has yet to register in Florida.
As Trump rose, he turned to look at about three dozen members of the media. His gaze was sombre but defiant, that of a man playing his role: Persecuted but unbowed.
He did not look across to acknowledge special counsel Smith, who sat in the row behind the government attorneys. Smith did not take his eyes off Trump as he walked away, his eyes burning into Trump’s back.
Hours earlier the former president had denounced the special counsel on social media as a ‘thug’ and a ‘Trump hater.’
Trump’s courtroom decorum was a surprise to Janie Jackson, who had lucked out with a place on the smooth wooden benches reserved for nine members of the public.
Attorney Todd Blanche stands as he enters Trump’s ‘not guilty’
Trump arrived and left in a five-SUV motorcade, He is seen here departing the courthouse, with Secret Service agents flanking his armored Suburban
A supporter of Donald Trump comes face-to-face with a protester dressed in prison garb who was seen wielding a ‘lock him up’ sign outside the courthouse
‘He was very quiet,’ the 51-year-old housekeeper said, as she rode the elevator down from the 13th floor.
‘I thought he would open his mouth.
‘He behaved himself.’
She had arrived at 9am. Reporters in the courtroom faced more of a fight for seats.
Some had stayed in line outside the courthouse overnight, despite thundery showers. Others used apps like TaskRabbit find placeholders happy to wait in line for a few hundred dollars.
That was the sort of historic day that Tuesday brought. A day before Trump was due to celebrate his 77th birthday, he was making another milestone – appearing in court to answer criminal charges for the second this year.
In April he became the first former president to face criminal charges, accused of falsifying business expenses as part of a pay-off to porn star Stormy Daniels.
That time, he appeared in his old stomping ground, a gritty New York courthouse. There, five photographers were given special dispensation to enter the courtroom to take pictures.
Read Related Also: A metre of snow set to be dumped over the next 10 days
Police stepped up security around the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami on Tuesday ahead of the hearing
The sweeping glass front of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami was designed to represent transparency and equality before the law
Things were different in Miami. The steel and glass, cruise-ship shape of the federal building made it seem as if a New York TV show had been sexed up with a Miami spin-off.
Trump made an invisible entrance via an underground garage — Trump’s team insisted the building’s layout meant that was the only way to arrive and that he was not trying to avoid waiting media.
And in an 11th hour ruling, the court refused to allow photographers and banned accredited journalist with bringing in laptops or phones. A reporter had been caught a day earlier taking pictures, which is against all the rules.
Instead there was only sketch artist Jane Rosenburg and her paper, pastels, and binoculars to record the historic image of the first former president to answering federal charges.
Eight secret service agents sat behind Trump in the courtroom. Its angled ceiling resembled the waves of the sea, and its patchwork of lamps made it look like it was dotted with the marine life.
In the event, the judge wanted to keep things moving along. Rather than reading the 37 counts against Trump he proposed that the lawyers for both sides simply say they have read them themselves.
‘We waive the formal reading,’ said Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche, perhaps mindful that the campaign team wanted the 2024 frontrunner back at his Bedminster golf club that evening in time for a planned speech to go out in prime time.
Goodman asked whether he could assume that Trump would be pleading not guilty?
‘We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,’ came the response.
Jack Smith was appointed in November as special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of classified information. He is seen here in a file photo and now sports a beard
Trump was represented in court by Blanche (left) and Florida lawyer Kise
Documents found at Mar-a-Lago in an August raid are pictured on display
Trump sat back in his chair, arms folded for much of the hearing. At key moments, he leant forwards, elbows on the desk.
Most of the rest of the hearing was taken up with a legal discussion about conditions for Trump’s release.
Smith’s deputy, Jay Bratt, said the prosecution did not believe Trump was a flight risk and asked for no special conditions, such as giving his passport or being banned from having firearms.
The judge had different ideas. Goodman proposed that not only should Trump be barred from talking to Nauta about the case, he should also be barred from talking to all the witnesses and victims of the alleged crime.
But that request cut to something of the complicated nature of the case, and the web around Trump.
Blanche said the condition was too broad, as it included ‘many of the people that he interacts with on a daily basis, including the men and women who protect him.’
Smith’s case has been built on Mar-a-Lago employees’ testimony and even evidence from one of Trump’s own lawyers.
How, said Blanche, could Trump avoid all those people?
In the end, a compromise was reached. Trump would be barred from talking to those witnesses about the case itself. He can still order a Diet Coke from them.
