It looks like Donald Trump has established a playbook for getting indicted: fly into the city he’s being charged in, load up the motorcade, go to court, get arrested, get arraigned, then fly to one of his resorts for a night-of speech. Trump flew to Mar-a-Lago to speak after getting arrested in New York in April, and on Tuesday he flew from Florida to his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, after pleading not guilty to 37 criminal counts brought against him by the Justice Department.
Before a crowd of supporters — who at one point interrupted him to sing “Happy Birthday” — Trump called the indictment against him “the most evil and heinous abuse in the history of our country.”
The former president ranted ad nauseam about President Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, vowing to get his revenge by appointing a “real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden. And the entire Biden crime family.” President Biden is currently facing his own, yet unresolved, special counsel investigation into classified material recovered from his home.
Trump repeatedly pointed to controversies surrounding Biden and Clinton’s handling of sensitive materials, but his gripes went far beyond just documents. “Hillary Clinton took hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of furniture, china, flatware, rugs and more from the White House, and she wasn’t prosecuted,” Trump complained. “How about if Trump did that? Do you think Trump would have a little problem?”
The former president also took aim at Special Counsel Jack Smith, calling him a “lunatic” and a “thug.” He even targeted his wife in a repeat of attacks he leveled against Smith and his family earlier this week.
“This is called election interference, yet another attempt to rig and steal a presidential election, Trump said. “More importantly, it’s a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation. This day will go down in infamy.”
The latest charges against Trump stem from a months-long DOJ investigation into his retention of a massive trove of classified documents following his departure from the presidency. A scathing indictment released Friday alleged he had gone to great lengths to prevent authorities from recovering the documents, and that he had mishandled them while they were in his possession.
Prosecutors say that the former president retained documents containing highly sensitive nuclear and military secrets; that he suggested lying about and even destroying the documents when investigators asked for them; that they have him on tape discussing the contents of one classified document with people who lacked security clearance, as well as admitting he couldn’t declassify them; and more.
At his court appearance Tuesday, Trump was not handcuffed and did not have his mugshot taken. He was digitally fingerprinted, assigned a probation officer, and appeared before the judge to enter his not-guilty plea. Following his departure from the court, the former president made a surprise stop at a Cuban restaurant, where a crowd of supporters sang him “Happy Birthday” and appeared to pray over him. Trump then departed for New Jersey.
The logistics of indicting and arresting a former president is further complicated by the real-time implosion of Trump’s legal team. On Friday, shortly before the indictment was made public, two of the former president’s attorneys resigned from their posts. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, sources close to the situation say Trump’s legal team was riddled with internal feuds and infighting for dominance over the case. One sticking point was the level of influence attorney Boris Epshteyn has over the president, and Trump’s refusal to do away with him. “Trump has put a lot of trust in Boris [in his post-presidency],” one source said. “People trying to convince the [former] president to get rid of Boris has very often had the opposite intended effect.”
This is the second criminal indictment brought against Trump this year. In April, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The charges relate to a 2016 hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
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