Justice Dept. investigating Trump’s actions - Update - Judge sets 20 May 2024 trial date for classified documents case

He left his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Monday morning to travel to Miami.

After Tuesday’s hearing, Mr Trump is expected to return to Bedminster to make remarks to the media.

Those remarks may well include “biased”, “witch-hunt”, “loser”, “lunatic”, “rigged”, “fraudulent”, “haters”, etc, etc.

How long will Donald Trump be in court?

The former president spent Monday night at the Trump National Doral, a hotel and resort in the Miami area. Accompanied by Secret Service officers, he is expected to motorcade from the hotel to the Wilkie D Ferguson court, where his arraignment is scheduled for around 15:00 local time (19:00 GMT). The court is about 11 miles (18km) from the hotel.

The entire hearing is set to last about an hour, after which Trump will fly back to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on board his plane, Trump Force One. He is scheduled to give remarks there at 20:15 (00:15 GMT), shortly after landing.

What will happen in court?

Mr Trump will have the charges read to him, and he is expected to enter a plea of not guilty.

The judge is expected to release the former president “on his own recognizance”, meaning he will be freed without having to pay a bail bond, to return to court at a later date.

Will Donald Trump have his mugshot taken?

Normally, defendants who voluntarily appear in court are handcuffed and get their fingerprints and mugshots taken.

But legal experts do not expect the former president to face the same procedures as any other defendant.

At his earlier court appearance to face state charges in New York in April, Mr Trump was only fingerprinted.

Oh, for a mugshot … :037:

Donald Trump pleads not guilty to all 37 charges … as expected.

And the classified stuff was planted.
Has there ever been such a people’s hero so victimized and misunderstood.

Donald Trump lashed out at his political opponents in an angry speech at a New Jersey fundraiser just hours after he pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges.

In a speech that lasted just over half an hour on Tuesday night, he attacked a range of prominent public figures including Bill and Hillary Clinton, President Joe Biden and his family, and the prosecutor in the Miami legal case.

“Today, we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country,” he opened. He claimed his indictment was “another attempt to rig and steal an election” that was “straight out of a fascist or communist nation”.

“They are threatening me with 400 years in prison for possessing my own presidential papers,” he claimed. “Whatever documents the president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so - it is an absolute right. They’ve got to drop this case immediately as it is destroying the country,” he said, adding that the case was a “sham”.

He touched on the classified documents previously found in Joe Biden’s possession and made other claims against his 2016 presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

“I’m the only one who followed the law,” he claimed. “I did everything right and they indicted me.”

Towards the end of his speech, he repeated inflammatory claims on issues central to his election campaign. He said he would strengthen border controls and end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours”. Trump also asserted he would appoint a special prosecutor “to go after” President Biden and his family.

The US is a “nation in serious decline,” Trump continued. "If the communists get away with this, it won’t stop there - [the] persecution of Christians, pro-life parents, future Republican candidates. “I will totally obliterate the deep state, we know who they are. I am the only one who can save this nation. Justice will be done, we will take back our country,” he finished.

The sheer ignorance of Trump never ceases to amaze me, along with his delusions and adolescent rhetoric … :roll_eyes:

That some people believe him is what never ceases to amaze me. I’m not even sure he believes his own rhetoric. Some people have said that behind the scenes that he lets on that he doesn’t believe it himself. However, that has seemed to wane in recent years.

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Former President Donald Trump will go on trial for alleged mishandling of classified documents in spring next year, a court has ruled. Judge Aileen Cannon set the case for 20 May. Mr Trump had wanted the trial held after the November 2024 election. Prosecutors wanted it this year.

In a statement on Friday, Mr Trump said that the trial date is a “major setback” to the justice department’s “crusade” against him.

On Friday, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, said the two-week trial would take place in Fort Pierce, Florida.

For prosecutors to secure a conviction in the Mar-a-Lago case, the jury’s decision must be unanimous. Jurors will be selected from around the Fort Pierce division, which includes several counties that Mr Trump won in 2020.

Lawyers for both sides argued in the Fort Pierce court earlier this week over when the case should be held. Prosecutors said the evidence was not complicated and there was no need to delay the trial. They wanted it to begin in December. But lawyers for Mr Trump had argued that the “extraordinary” nature of the case required more time to prepare.

A Trump judge and a (partial) Trump jury … :thinking:

Whatever the evidence … acquittal … :question:

Mr Trump received an additional charge of wilful retention of defence information, and two new charges of obstruction, the justice department said.

An additional person, Mar-a-Lago staff member Carlos de Oliveira, has also been indicted in the case. Mr Trump’s aide Walt Nauta also received two additional counts of obstruction.

The new court documents outline alleged efforts between Mr Nauta and Mr de Oliviera, the property manager at Mar-a-Lago, to obstruct the justice department’s investigation.

According to the new court documents, Mr Nauta and Mr de Oliveira conspired to delete footage from security cameras after the Department of Justice issued a subpoena asking for surveillance footage of the basement where it said confidential documents were held.

In this case alone, Trump now faces 40 felony charges, ranging from the wilful retention of national defence information to conspiracy to obstruct justice … :open_mouth:

The property manager at Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, has appeared in court in Miami as part of the probe into alleged mishandling of classified documents there.

Charges against Carlos de Oliveira were filed last week as prosecutors widened their inquiry into Mr Trump and another aide, Walt Nauta.

Officials allege Mr de Oliveira tried to delete CCTV footage of Mr Trump’s home after a visit by the FBI.

He is set to enter a plea on 10 August.

The timescale was pushed back to allow him time to hire a lawyer in Florida. Mr de Oliveira’s Washington DC-based lawyer described the new charges as “unfortunate”.

Mr de Oliveira was also ordered to surrender his passport and sign an agreement to pay $100,000 (£78,000) if he does not show up for the next hearing.

He was banned from contacting any witnesses in the case.

According to US media, Mr de Oliveira, 56, is a long-time maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago. He faces charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to federal investigators.

I’ll guess that he’ll make a deal with the feds … :wink:

Here are the main legal cases the former US president is involved in.

Donald Trump and his valet pleaded not guilty Thursday to an expanded set of charges stemming from the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, after special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment in the case last month.

Trump’s two codefendants in the case appeared in court in Ft Pierce, Florida, although the former US president himself was not in attendance as his legal team submitted a plea of not guilty.

Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet, did appear in person at the Thursday hearing to plead not guilty to the expanded set of charges he now faces. Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, was expected to enter a plea as well but was unable to do so because he has still not retained a local attorney.

His arraignment was rescheduled for next week.

The hearing came two weeks after Smith filed his superseding indictment adding De Oliveira as a codefendant in the case and outlining further charges against Trump and Nauta.

De Oliveira faces four federal criminal charges, including making false statements and conspiring to obstruct justice. Smith’s superseding indictment alleges that Trump engaged in a scheme with Nauta and De Oliveira to wipe a server containing Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage that was subpoenaed by prosecutors and showed boxes of classified documents being removed from the storage room.

Trump had already indicated he would plead not guilty to the expanded set of charges after the former president’s legal team submitted a court filing waiving his right to appear at the arraignment in person.

“I have received a copy of the Indictment and the plea is NOT GUILTY to the charged offense(s),” the filing read.

Keeping track of all the cases and all the charges is rapidly becoming impossible … :037:

You deserve a medal for even trying to keep track of it all @Omah !

I tried for a while but gave up long ago.
I just know there’s a lot of charges - but making any of them stick may prove tricky - and even if they do, the man has no shame and will try to twist whatever happens to his own advantage.

It’s got to the point where I cannot even bear to see that smug unpleasant face or hear that nasty whining, ranting voice - if Trump comes on our TV News, I just have to use the remote to zap him off immediately, so I miss most of the news bulletins about him.

If only he could be switched off so easily in real life! - after everything he has done since losing the last election, I find it difficult to believe that he is still leading the Polls as the Republican Presidential Candidate and keeping up with the current Democrat President in the Polls.
I can’t help thinking that there must be an element of stubbornness in those people who are still supporting him - and he’s doing quite an act of portraying himself as the victim with all these charges against him and upcoming court cases.

Mind you, I couldn’t believe such a nasty grifter with his track record was ever seriously considered as a Presidential Candidate and was amazed when he got through the Primaries the first time round! :woman_shrugging:

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He got a lot of help from the media I think.Rupert of Murdoch was very impressed with him,then anyway.

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There used to be a subreddit dedicated to his lies. They ran into the thousands. The list got huge and unwieldy. There’s probably a list somewhere of all of his legal cases.

Murdoch always hated Trump. It was pretty well documented. But Trump had the power to tank his network at the time so they made a sort of truce.

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Indeed there is (PBS have one) … and very helpful it is, too … :slightly_smiling_face:

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Yuscil Taveras, an IT director identified as Trump Employee 4 in legal documents, changed his testimony after switching lawyers, say prosecutors. He now accuses Mr Trump and two aides of “efforts to delete security camera footage”, says the filing.

The court document filed on Tuesday says Mr Taveras changed lawyers after special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case, notified him he was being investigated for perjury. His former attorney also represents Mr Trump’s co-defendant Mr Nauta.

During grand jury testimony in March this year, Mr Taveras “repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago”.

Prosecutors said they obtained evidence that Mr De Oliveira had asked Mr Taveras to delete the CCTV footage after investigators demanded the video as they tracked the movement of boxes containing the documents inside the resort.

“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, [Carlos] De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the court filing says.

Mr Taveras is not charged in the case, which is scheduled for trial next May.

One in the eye for Trump … :point_right:

In a motion filed late Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers urged U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to push back the trial until at least mid-November 2024. The presidential election is set for Nov. 5, 2024, with Trump currently leading the GOP field in the months before the primary season.

The defense lawyers argued that a postponement was necessary because of scheduling conflicts — another federal trial is scheduled for March 2024 in Washington, and one of Trump’s attorneys, Christopher Kise, is also representing him in an ongoing civil fraud trial in New York — and because of what they say are delays in obtaining and reviewing the classified records cited in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment.

The defense lawyers said they have access to only a “small, temporary facility” in Miami to review classified documents, an arrangement that they say has slowed the process.

Prosecutors with the special counsel last week suggested that the Trump team was seeking unreasonable delays in the case. Though they acknowledged a “slightly longer than anticipated timeframe” for certain procedural steps, the prosecutors said it was false to accuse them of delaying the production of evidence in the case.

They said some of the delays were beyond their control and were due in part to the fact that defense lawyers had lacked the “necessary read-ins to review all material” provided by the government.

The Justice Department says it has so far provided about 1.28 million pages of unclassified documents and has turned over the majority of classified evidence that it anticipates producing. By Friday, prosecutors said, they will provide much of the remaining outstanding classified evidence.

Trump’s lawyers now getting desperate to avoid concurrent trials.

They will have to work even harder to get him to pay their bill.

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I haven’t seen the latest figures but as of Jul 31:

Former President Donald Trump’s mounting legal woes are growing more expensive, leading his campaign to request a refund from a supportive super PAC and launch a new legal defense fund to help cover costs, according to media reports.

Trump’s Political Action Committee (PAC) has also requested that his super PAC, MAGA Inc., return some of the money that it transferred to seed the group to help cover costs.

Trump launched his PAC, Save America, in the days after the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. For weeks, the group bombarded supporters with a nonstop stream of text messages and emails that purported to raise money for an “election defense fund” that would be used to contest the election’s outcome.

But the $170 million that the effort raised in less than a month was not used to contest the election, records show. Instead, it was used to pay down campaign debt and replenish the coffers of the Republican National Committee, with Trump also stockpiling another large chunk for his future political endeavors. Last year, the Justice Department issued a round of grand jury subpoenas that sought information about the political action committee’s fundraising practices.

At the same time, Trump’s allies are creating a new legal defense fund that will help pay the soaring legal fees as Trump faces dozens of criminal charges stemming from indictments in New York and Florida, with more expected as soon as this week. The Patriot Legal Defense Fund, as it is called, is intended to raise money to defray costs for those “defending against legal actions arising from an individual or group’s participation in the political process,” according to a filing made last month with the IRS. The group will be run by Trump campaign senior advisers Susie Wiles and Michael Glassner.

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On Thursday, his lawyers in this Florida case said in a court filing: “As the leading candidate in the 2024 election, President Trump strongly asserts that a fair trial cannot be conducted this year in a manner consistent with the Constitution.”