Donald Trump spent the night at his golf club in Doral, outside Miami, ahead of a historic federal court appearance.
The former president will appear at Wilkie D Ferguson Court at 3pm (8pm UK time) accused of stealing classified documents and attempting to block efforts to get them back.
trump card Landed on a private jet Monday afternoon.
A small crowd of supporters gathered outside Trump’s National Doral Miami golf resort to cheer as his motorcade drove past.
He faces 37 felony charges related to documents found at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, as well as charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements.
Photos released by the Justice Department as part of its unsealed indictment show boxes of documents stacked inside his Mar-a-Lago estate, including the bathroom.
Prosecutors said some of the documents contained details about nuclear weapons programs, potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies, and plans for retaliatory military strikes.
About 13,000 documents were seized in a raid on the property nearly a year ago. One hundred of them were marked as classified.
Prosecutors say Trump’s hoarding of documents during his presidency endangered national security — and the charges under the Espionage Act could carry up to 20 years in prison.
“I hope the whole country pays attention to what the radical left is doing to America,” he wrote on his Truth Social website before boarding the plane.
Former President Donald Trump arrives at the Trump National Resort in Doral, Fla. Photo: AP
However, some Republican challengers to Trump’s presidential nomination appear to be changing their tone.
Nikki Haley said in an interview with Fox News: “If this indictment is true … President Trump is extremely reckless with our national security … it puts all of our military members at risk.”
Donald Trump in federal court: What you need to know
It was the first federal indictment against a former president, but Mr Trump claims he was persecuted to prevent him from becoming president again in 2024.
Polls show that his supporters overwhelmingly believe the charges are politically motivated.
In a weekend CBS News poll of Republican voters, only 12 percent said their biggest concern about the indictments was that the documents posed a national security risk.
More than three-quarters (76%) said their biggest concern was that the prosecution was politically motivated.
Trump supporter Pete Crotty outside the former president’s golf club in Doral, Fla.; AP
Protesters in Miami have raised allegations about President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, which are still under investigation, and the Hillary Clinton email scandal.
But in an interview with Sky News, a former federal prosecutor who almost indicted Richard Nixon over Watergate and declined to represent Donald Trump last year said there were stark differences between the cases.
“The biggest difference is the collaboration,” Jon Sale said.
“When President Trump got the subpoena last spring, if he told his lawyers, ‘Look, I want to turn over everything; I want to comply with the subpoena. Do a serious search — everything we have, give it to the grand jury Tuan, then you and I won’t come today.”
Miami’s police chief said he expected as many as 50,000 people to be on the streets at today’s hearing, and downtown roads could be closed if necessary.
Former presidents will be fingerprinted. A mugshot of him will be taken, but it will not be released, and there will be no cameras of any kind installed in the courtroom itself. He will have the charges read to him and enter a plea. The case will then be adjourned.
No matter where you get the podcast, subscribe to Sky News Daily with one click
Trump, who turned 77 this week, is also due to stand trial next March on charges he falsified business records to conceal damaging information and illegal activities. There is another case against him in Georgia, accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Scheduling the three trials could mean the case cannot be completed before the November 2024 presidential election.