June 13

By Claire Hansen

Former President Donald Trump is calling his supporters to action ahead of his arraignment at a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday on 37 felony criminal charges related to his mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of justice.

The arraignment marks a stunning moment for the country, which will see a former president face federal criminal charges for the first time in history. The scene promises to be chaotic, with intense media interest and expected protests featuring crowds that will likely be fed by the fact that the Justice Department is charging Trump in Florida – where he lives and where he has many supporters – instead of in Washington or New York.

“Our country has to protest. We have plenty of protest to protest. We’ve lost everything,” Trump said Sunday afternoon in a radio interview with his longtime friend and right-wing figure Roger Stone.

“They have to go out and they have to protest peacefully. They have to go out,” he said, calling Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith – who is heading the investigation into Trump – “deranged.”

His comments echo those he made ahead of his arraignment in New York in April on state criminal charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star during the 2016 election, and they have particularly concerned observers because of Trump’s call to action to his supporters ahead of the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol – the subject of another, separate probe being led by Smith.

Trump over the weekend said he would not back out of the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination even if convicted, as first reported by Politico.

And on Monday, he promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate President Joe Biden and others if he was reelected.

“NOW THAT THE ‘SEAL’ IS BROKEN, IN ADDITION TO CLOSING THE BORDER & REMOVING ALL OF THE ‘CRIMINAL’ ELEMENTS THAT HAVE ILLEGALLY INVADED OUR COUNTRY, MAKING AMERICA ENERGY INDEPENDENT, & EVEN DOMINANT AGAIN, & IMMEDIATELY ENDING THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA & UKRAINE, I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL ‘PROSECUTOR’ TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS, & COUNTRY ITSELF!,” he said in a social media post.

He also delivered a rousing speech in Georgia to supporters, denouncing the indictment and using increasingly threatening language around the issue.

“This is a sick nest of people that needs to be cleaned out,” Trump said, referring to Smith, the Justice Department, President Joe Biden and the government establishment – casting all as corrupt and politically motivated.

“This is the final battle,” he said, telling supporters, too, that, “Either the communists win and destroy America, or we destroy the communists.”

Trump is facing 37 felony counts, including charges of willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal and making false statements.

The Justice Department on Friday unsealed the indictment of Trump, giving fresh insight into federal prosecutors’ case against him.

Prosecutors says that Trump held on to a cache of incredibly sensitive, classified national security materials after leaving office; stored them in areas accessible to the public; refused to turn the documents back over to the government; hatched and executed a plan to hide documents from his lawyers and the government in defiance of a federal subpoena; and, in two separate incidents, knowingly showed classified documents to people who did not have clearance to see such information.

Evidence cited in the indictment appears to show that Trump knew the documents were classified – undercutting his assertion that he had declassified them as president – and willfully retained the classified information even after he was legally required to via a federal subpoena, in defiance of his lawyers’ advice and the law.

The charges are the gravest legal accusations against the president, and, with many charges falling under the Espionage Act, could carry hefty prison sentences if convicted.

Trump and his supporters have maintained that he is innocent of all wrongdoing and have cast the investigation and the indictment as a political witch hunt meant to take him out of contention ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“I HOPE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS WATCHING WHAT THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS ARE DOING TO AMERICA, AND ALL WE STAND FOR. WE ARE A NATION IN SERIOUS DECLINE, AND IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, mid-morning Monday, referencing also recent reports about a Chinese spy base in Cuba.

Trump is scheduled to be arraigned at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Miami, according to a post he made on social media. He said Monday morning that he was preparing to travel to Miami ahead of the event.

Trump is reportedly planning to personally appear at the arraignment and is expected to plead not guilty to all charges.

On Tuesday evening, he is set to headline a previously scheduled private fundraising dinner at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey – one of the places prosecutors say he kept documents and improperly showed them to people without clearance.

Trump appears to be counting on the indictment to boost his support among GOP presidential primary voters, though early polling shows a complicated – but still deeply partisan – picture.

According to a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted over the weekend, 38% of likely Republican primary voters see a national security risk if Trump kept classified documents, compared to 80% of the rest of the country. Of GOP voters, 60% said the indictment wouldn’t change their view of Trump, while 14% said it would change their view of him for the better. Just 7% said the charges would change their view of the former president for the worse.

A separate poll conducted by ABC News and Ipsos over the weekend found that more than 6 in 10 Americans – including 91% of Democrats, 63% of independents and 38% of Republicans – believe that the charges in the indictment are serious. But the share of Americans who believe the charges are politically motivated outpace those who do not, 47% to 37%.

Trump remains the runaway front-runner for the Republican nomination, even after the indictment.

According to the same CBS/YouGov Poll, Trump is netting 61% of support among likely primary voters. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis comes in a distant second with 23% support. No other candidate breaks into double digits.