Miami.- Former US President Donald Trump is summoned this Wednesday before the court in charge of the criminal case for the classified documents found in his Florida home in 2022 for the reading of three new charges, but he has already asked not to appear in person and pleaded not guilty in writing.
Judge Aileen Cannon has not yet responded to this request from Trump’s lawyers (2017-2021) to waive her right to attend the arraignment, but she did, and negatively to a request from a media “coalition”. .
The judge said Tuesday “no” to the media being able to bring electronic devices to the court in Fort Pierce (Florida), a town 200 kilometers from Miami, where the case is settled.
In addition to Trump, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, two employees of the former president accused of helping him hide the classified documents, are summoned tomorrow before Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard, at 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT).
For De Oliveira, of Portuguese origin, who is the manager of the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, where Trump has his residence in Florida, it will be the first reading of charges and for Waltine Nauta, the former president’s personal assistant, the second.
De Oliveira is out on bail after being indicted on July 31 for allegedly requesting the deletion of footage from Mar-a-Lago’s security cameras that investigators in the case had claimed.
Trump and Nauta will be read the additional charges filed on July 27 each by special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is also acting in the case against the former president for the case related to the capture of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by his supporters who wanted to prevent the certification of the electoral victory of today’s President Joe Biden.
Smith added to the initial 37 charges against Trump one of “deliberate withholding of national defense information” and two additional charges of “obstruction,” related to alleged attempts to remove surveillance video footage in the summer of 2022.
The former president, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, claims that the legal proceedings against him are “electoral interference at the highest level” and blames Biden for everything.
Despite his problems with the law, Trump is the clear favorite to win the Republican primaries in 2024 and thus compete with Biden for the White House in November of that same year.
