The nation’s eyes will be on the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, where former President Trump is set to appear after telling crowds of supporters last weekend that he will “never yield” and “never be detained.”
The former president’s mounting legal challenges include a 37-count federal indictment unsealed on Friday centering on his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Trump delivered a defiant speech Saturday at the Georgia Republican Party state convention, where an enthusiastic crowd of supporters cheered the Republican frontrunner.
Referring to those promoting the legal efforts against him — whom he called the “Marxist left” — Trump said: “These criminals cannot be rewarded; they must be defeated.”
In a wide-ranging speech that lasted over an hour, Trump frequently returned to the subject of the indictment. At one point, Trump contrasted the allegations against himself, which he called “peanuts,” to what he alleged were classified materials violations by Joe Biden when he was vice president and senator.
Trump repeated a warning he previously expressed on social media to characterize the investigations and charges he has faced during and since his presidency: “In the end they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you, and I’m just standing their way … and I always will be.”
The 49-page indictment accuses the former president of retaining and disseminating secret information about the nation’s nuclear program, among other allegations. The indictment alleges that, in one instance, Trump admitted he could not declassify what he described as a “plan of attack” that he revealed to a group of individuals.
“[A]s president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, and this is still a secret,” the indictment alleges Trump said in a recorded conversation.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served in the Trump administration, told Fox News, “If even half of [the indictment] is true then he’s toast. It’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning.”
Trump arrived in the Miami area on Monday afternoon. He is scheduled for a hearing at the city’s federal courthouse at 3 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday.
