Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in front of a U.S. magistrate judge in connection to charges he mishandled classified documents, marking the second time this year Trump has been arraigned on a criminal case.
Trump was arraigned on the federal charges Tuesday afternoon in a Miami, Florida, courthouse. Just hours before the former president made his court appearance, GOP U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds went on CNN to provide an on-air defense.
“As somebody who’s been to Mar-a-Lago, you can’t just walk through Mar-a-Lago of your own accord because Secret Service is all over the place,” Donalds said.
Trump was formally indicted last week on 37 counts related to willful retention of national defense information – a charge related to the Espionage Act – as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, and other charges regarding classified documents taken from the White House and kept on his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Trump turned himself in, and he and his attorneys appeared in a courtroom before Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was released on personal recognizance, also known as a no-cost bond where defendants pledge to return to court for future proceedings without having to pay a bail, and no travel restrictions were imposed on him.
Just as supporters backed Trump after he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in March on criminal charges related to hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign, there are many who are siding with the former president this week, advocating his innocence while also questioning the legitimacy of the recent federal indictment.
Donalds went on CNN inquiring about the photos that have been circulating online of the boxes that allegedly contain the classified documents in Trump’s estate.
“There are 33 bathrooms at Mar-a-Lago!” Donalds said. “So don’t act like it’s in some random bathroom that the guests can go into. That’s not true!”
Those photos are included in the nearly 50-page indictment detailing the case against Trump. Prosecutors state that “tens of thousands of guests and members” visited the “active social club” at Mar-a-Lago for more than a year after Trump left the White House. The resort hosted approximately 150 social events including weddings, movie premieres, and fundraisers between January 2021 and August 2022, when the FBI executed a court-approved search of the premises for the documents.
Donalds is a U.S. House representative representing Florida’s 19th District. He has publicly endorsed Trump’s candidacy for president in the upcoming 2024 election over his governor, Ron DeSantis. Donalds said Trump is the “one leader” who can get the U.S. “back on track.”
Several of Trump’s supporters were seen outside the courthouse on Tuesday proclaiming the former president’s innocence.
The former president posted to Truth Social that the day of his arraignment is “ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE!!!”
In a recent CNN interview, Tim Parlatore, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, expressed concerns about the storage of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Parlatore, who left Trump’s legal team in May, discussed the indictment against the former president.
In February 2020, Jing Ly, a Chinese national, faced charges of resisting a police officer without violence after an incident at Mar-a-Lago. In December 2019, she disregarded warnings to leave the resort but returned later to take photographs. While a jury found her not guilty of trespassing, she claimed that the language barrier hindered her understanding of the security officer’s instructions to leave the premises.
In a separate incident in March 2019, Yujing Zhang, another Chinese woman, managed to gain access to Mar-a-Lago, despite not being a member of the resort.
Several Twitter users also mentioned the breach of security by the Chinese nationals in response to Donalds’ colorful defense of Trump. While some users hurled insults such as “dumb” or “clown” at the Black lawmaker, others accused him of being a partisan crusader.
“Omg they keep finding ways to excuse the inexcusable,” wrote @mzjmp.
“I guess he hasn’t read the indictment,” another user said.
