Donald Trump Campaigns On Under Legal Shadow

Legal observers expect the defense in coming weeks to present motions to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointed judge randomly assigned to the case, with an eye to slowing its move toward trial.  

A local prosecutor in Georgia, meanwhile, said she planned to present criminal charges in August related to efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election there. 

Trump, who turned 77 years old on Wednesday, already faces criminal charges in New York stemming from the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into his role in a hush-money payment that was made during the final stretch of the 2016 election to a porn star who alleged she had an affair with him. Trump has denied wrongdoing in the New York and Georgia matters, and accused prosecutors of pursuing him for political reasons. 

Republican elected officials and leaders have broadly criticized the prosecutions, though some are expressing concern over Trump’s handling of the documents. 

“This indictment contains serious charges, and I cannot defend what is alleged,” former Vice President Mike Pence, a 2024 presidential contender, said Wednesday on CNBC. But Pence added that, “it doesn’t change the fact that tens of millions of Americans have a sense of a two-tiered system of justice.”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who also recently joined the presidential race, was critical of Trump in a Fox News interview Wednesday. “This next administration, if Donald Trump is president, will be all about retribution for him personally,” he said.

Trump doesn’t have any scheduled campaign events this week and plans to remain at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., aides said. The campaign has been pushing out scores of fundraising emails, looking to quickly build up millions of dollars in donations in the immediate aftermath of the indictment. 

Trump has said he won’t drop out of the race no matter what happens.

On Tuesday evening, hours after his not guilty plea, Trump lashed out at federal prosecutors and portrayed himself as a victim of political persecution.

“Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country,” Trump said in Bedminster, surrounded by supporters and a crush of reporters.

“This day will go down in infamy,” Trump said. He made a number of claims, including that he had the right to take the documents with him to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., though he said they were in boxes of personal items—including news clips and photographs—that he didn’t have a chance to completely go through.

Federal prosecutors Friday unsealed a 49-page indictment, including color photographs, alleging the former president held on to documents he knew he shouldn’t have retained access to, shared them with others and directed his staff to help him evade authorities’ efforts to get them back. 

The classified documents that Trump kept in his boxes included information about U.S. and foreign defense and weapons capabilities, American nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the U.S. and its allies to military attack, and plans for a possible retaliation in response from a foreign country, the indictment said. 

Trump has repeatedly said he is being treated unfairly, and he reminded the audience Tuesday night that President Biden had classified documents stored at his home in Delaware and other locations, dating to Biden’s tenure as vice president and a senator. A separate special counsel has also been investigating how and why classified documents ended up at Biden’s home and office after he left the vice presidency in 2017. Biden returned the documents to the government.

In New Jersey, Trump vowed that if elected president again he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden and his family.

“I will totally obliterate the deep state,” he said.

At one point during Trump’s roughly half-hour speech, the crowd began singing “Happy Birthday.”

“Nice birthday, wonderful birthday,” he said sarcastically. “But we’re going to make it into the greatest birthday of all.”

Trump spoke to his supporters in New Jersey after a whirlwind day that began at his Doral golf resort, continued with a motorcade ride to the federal courthouse in Miami, where he was fingerprinted and arraigned, and was followed by a stop at an well-known Cuban restaurant—all tracked by backers, detractors and television cameras.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts, which include seven different charges, including willful retention of national-defense information, withholding a record, false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice. All relate to his handling of documents at Mar-a-Lago, roughly 70 miles north of the courthouse.

Trump’s current aide and former valet, Walt Nauta, was charged alongside the former president on five of the counts as well as a false-statements charge. Nauta, who went to work at Mar-a-Lago after serving at the White House, didn’t enter a plea during the same court appearance because he doesn’t have a local attorney. The judge set his next court appearance for June 27.

Prosecutors didn’t seek any restrictions on travel or possession of firearms. Goodman allowed Trump and Nauta to remain free on several conditions, including that they have no communications with one another about the case. They also can’t talk about the case with a list of people the government identifies as witnesses.

That could be a challenge. While prosecutors haven’t yet detailed who they might call at any trial, many of the witnesses they put before the grand jury are aides, lawyers and associates of Trump.

The indictment is the first emanating out of the investigation by special counsel Jack Smith, who sat in the first row of the courtroom Tuesday. The special counsel is also investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by his supporters. Trump has denied wrongdoing in those matters.

—C. Ryan Barber and Aruna Viswanatha contributed to this article contributed to this article.

Write to Alex Leary at [email protected], Sadie Gurman at [email protected], Deborah Acosta at [email protected] and Erin Ailworth at [email protected]