Trump becomes a defendant and tries to politicize the crimes he committed aiming for 2024

Former US President Donald Trump was charged Tuesday with federal crimes. Trump was in custody in federal court in Miami to hear the 37 criminal charges he faces for keeping secret documents after leaving the White House.

The billionaire uses the investigations in which he is the target to move his base, supporters and militiamen, and create a climate of war for the presidential elections in 2024. Recently, he referred to the processes in which he will face as the “final battle” against what he called of corrupt US forces.

Trump is currently favored to win the Republican Party primary.

Before the judge, the former president pleaded not guilty to all the charges listed. The few media professionals allowed to follow the hearing reported that Trump kept his arms crossed during the session.

Trump arrived at the Federal Courthouse in Miami around 2 pm local time (3 pm GMT) and under tight security. There was an expectation of turmoil, but in the end, the number of supporters of the leader of the American extreme right was reduced.

The far-right militia Proud Boys even called a demonstration in front of the court this Tuesday. The group has members convicted of the violent invasion of the Capitol in 2021.

Some allies of the former president went so far as to say that the country “has reached the stage of war”.

In a live stream after the hearing, Trump accused current US President Joe Biden of orchestrating the federal charges against him. Without presenting evidence and in an attempt to inflame his supporter base, the businessman said that Biden “will forever be remembered not only as the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president who, along with a group of of its closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists have tried to destroy American democracy.”

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the case

In 2022, US federal police found hundreds of official documents at the home of Donald Trump and Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Inside the boxes was information considered top secret, such as details about the nuclear arsenal of the United States and other countries, and American vulnerabilities to a military attack.

The Justice Department claims that Trump intentionally withheld hundreds of confidential documents that he took from the White House to his home in Mar-a-Lago after leaving the presidency. For the Court, this would have put the security of the country at risk.

In the US, law requires presidents to send all e-mails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. The legislation also prohibits the keeping of state secrets in unauthorized and unsafe places.

The Justice Department released photos showing boxes of documents stored on a stage in a ballroom, in a bathroom and strewn across a warehouse floor.

To the judge, the prosecutors stated that they do not consider that Trump can flee, so the former president will respond to this process in freedom. If found guilty, he could be arrested and serve a sentence of 10 to 20 years on each charge.

It is the second lawsuit that the billionaire faces in US justice. In April, the Manhattan district attorney charged Trump with 34 counts of business misrepresentation.

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Elections 2024

The criminal prosecutions faced by Trump and some of his allies is considered the first major test on the eve of the American election period. This is because Donald Trump is the main candidate of the Republican party and, at the same time, the first US president to become a defendant in the Federal Court of the country.

Claiming innocence, Trump claims he is the victim of political persecution. This is because the Department of Justice is part of the Cabinet of the country’s executive branch, that is, it is commanded by the government, which is currently headed precisely by Joe Biden, his opponent in the 2020 elections and possible opponent for 2024.

The White House, however, has distanced itself from the process, and Biden said he has not and will not speak about the issue with his attorney general, Merrick Garland.

In the United States, the Department of Security is a mixture of the version of the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office in Brazil. The department is headed by the Attorney General, appointed by the President of the United States and endorsed by the Federal Senate of the country.

“They’re using it because they can’t win the election fairly and honestly,” Trump said Monday in an interview with Americano Media, a Miami-based media company.