Trump Heads to Court to Start Fighting Espionage Act Charges (1)

Donald Trump is due in a Miami federal court Tuesday afternoon to face charges alleging he jeopardized national security by violating the Espionage Act, even as he leads the Republican field for next year’s presidential race.

Trump is accused of willfully retaining and mishandling classified documents, including top-secret nuclear information and war plans, after he left office. No other former president has ever been indicted federally, let alone faced national security claims.

Legal experts say that the US Justice Department has historically treated such cases as among the most serious.

“When you look at the information in the indictment, it’s remarkable, and it’s dangerous in terms of national security,” former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in an interview. “Unless there’s accountability, our allies will start to wonder about us.”

WATCH: Former President Donald Trump is due in a Miami court today.

Source: Bloomberg

Trump will be appearing in Miami before US Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman. After that, the case will proceed in the court’s West Palm Beach division before US District Judge Aileen Cannon.

On Monday night, Goodman issued an order denying a request by media outlets (including Bloomberg News) to allow limited photography and video inside the courthouse and to immediately release an audio recording of the hearing. There is no online stream or other remote public access for the proceeding. Goodman said the press may renew their requests before Cannon once she takes over the case.

Defense Attorneys

Trump is considering a wide array of experienced criminal defense attorneys in Florida, a person familiar with the situation said. But because there’s no requirement to have his permanent Florida counsel enter an appearance for Tuesday’s hearing, Trump will be initially represented by two of his current attorneys, Todd Blanche, a former New York federal prosecutor, and Chris Kise, the former Florida solicitor general.

The list of attorneys being considered has included Bill Barzee, Ben Kuehne, and David Markus, among others, the person said. The three lawyers didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

Trump, who insists that he did nothing wrong, has called the prosecution ridiculous and baseless. He and his supporters have questioned why other elected officials, notably President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, haven’t been charged for having classified information in their possession after leaving office. Both Biden and Pence notified the government and turned over the documents after finding them.

Read More: Trump Tried to Hide Documents, Share Secrets, Indictment Alleges

Ahead of Trump’s arraignment, authorities are taking precautions. Miami police are gearing up for crowds ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 people.

Showing Intent

One of the biggest challenges the government faces in making its case stick is showing intent, which is critical to state-secrets prosecutions. Stephanie Siegmann, who served as national security chief in the Massachusetts US attorney’s office, said the indictment reflects a “strategic” approach with a timeline prosecutors lay out.

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records on Dec. 7, 2021, in a storage room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., that had fallen over with contents spilling onto the floor.

Source: Justice Department

Prosecutors cite Trump speaking about the need to safeguard classified information, as a presidential candidate in 2016 and after his election. They contrast that with a transcript of a recording they say shows him acknowledging in 2021 that he had held on to a military “plan of attack” that he hadn’t declassified while in office, Siegmann said.

“The DOJ is using many of those statements that he made against Hillary Clinton against him now, to show his knowledge, because they have to prove willfulness, which is one of the highest requirements,” she said.

Read More: Trump’s Own Words Play a Star Role in the Case Against Him

Trove of Documents

The indictment against Trump — in which his former White House valet and post-presidency personal aide Walt Nauta is named as a co-defendant — specifically charges the former president with unlawfully retaining 31 documents containing sensitive national security information, most of it classified at the Top Secret level. More broadly, the government claims he held on to more than 300 documents with classified markings after leaving the White House. Prosecutors could point to those larger numbers to argue for a stiffer sentence if he is convicted.

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

Source: Justice Department

The number of documents at issue, along with their top secret contents, make this case more similar to past classified documents prosecutions the Justice Department decided to pursue, experts said. Pairing the national security element with allegations that Trump also tried to obstruct the investigation could prove a powerful combination at trial, Siegmann said.

“Once a jury believes that you lied, it’s far easier for them to convict you of other things,” she said.

Nauta is also to be arraigned on Tuesday.

“We can’t ignore the fact that it’s the president of the United States, who is the head of law enforcement and the intelligence community, doing this,” said Shane Stansbury of Duke University’s law school. “There’s an abuse-of-trust aspect to that.”

Read More: Trump Indictment Outlines ‘Powerful Case,’ Ex-Prosecutors Say

Trump faces an array of legal threats as he pursues a second term. The federal case follows a New York state criminal case set for trial in Manhattan in March. That prosecution is over hush money payments made to a porn star just ahead of the 2016 election Trump won. He has pleaded not guilty and said it is part of a larger political program to take him down.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to distance the federal prosecution from Biden, defended the indictment Friday in his first official public appearance since being named to his post.

“Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced,” Smith said. “Violations of those laws put our country at risk.”

The case is US v. Trump, 23-cr-80101, US District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami).

Read More

• Trump Charged Over Secret Records in a First for an Ex-President
• Trump Indictment Highlights the Perils of Being His Lawyer
• Trump’s Die-Hard Base Faces Test of Loyalty After Latest Charges
• What Trump’s Many Legal Perils Mean for His 2024 Bid: QuickTake

(Updates with details of hearing and Trump’s laywers from fifth paragraph)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net;
Greg Farrell in New York at gregfarrell@bloomberg.net;
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Joe Schneider, Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou

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