Donald Trump pleads not guilty to federal criminal charges at Miami indictment hearing – live | Donald Trump

Walt Nauta, Donald Trump’s valet who was indicted alongside him over the documents found at Mar-a-Lago, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, Reuters reports, citing the Associated Press.

CNN is also reporting that the federal magistrate overseeing the case, Jonathan Goodman, has told Trump not to contact any potential witnesses.

Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state under Donald Trump, has said the way the former president stored classified documents after leaving office was “wrong”.

In an interview with Fox News, Pompeo said:

If the allegations are true, and there’s lots of indications that they are, President Trump had classified documents where he shouldn’t have had them, and then when given the opportunity to return them, he chose not to do that for whatever reason.

He said he had handled “thousands and thousands” of classified documents during his time in Congress and as CIA director, as well as while serving as secretary of state. He added:

I suppose we can all make mistakes and get them to the wrong place, but when somebody identifies that, you gotta turn them in. So that’s just inconsistent with protecting America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and if the allegations are true, some of these were pretty serious, important documents. So that’s wrong.

Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, the Republican congressman Ken Buck said the public will need to see how the evidence for the case against Trump is presented and what his defence is, but he would not “feel comfortable” supporting someone who has been convicted of a felony for president.

Buck said:

If he is convicted of these charges of mishandling this information, of knowingly concealing his actions, I don’t think, I certainly won’t support a convicted felon for the White House.

He noted comments that Trump previously made against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election campaign, where he accused his Democratic rival of being unfit for office because of her handling of emails on a private server. Buck added:

I think [Trump’s] words will set the standard that America will look at in determining whether he is fit for president.

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges related to allegedly hoarding government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort and frustrating efforts by the federal government to retrieve them at his ongoing arraignment in Miami, Reuters reports.

Donald Trump has stepped into the courtroom where the charges against him over the Mar-a-Lago documents will be read out, and where he will be able to enter his plea, Reuters reports.

Martin Pengelly

The ever-industrious Manu Raju, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, has conducted some more vox pops in the halls of power, buttonholing two Republicans and a Democrat for comment on Donald Trump’s extreme predicament.

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina and a close Trump ally, said:

Most politicians get in trouble by self-inflicted wounds. Yeah, I mean, he believes he had the right to possess these [records] under the Presidential Records Act. I don’t know whether that’s accurate or not.

Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican congressman and former US Navy SEAL, said:

I’m not dismissing it. I’m not condemning it. I’m not a spokesperson. And that’s my stance as a member of Congress. You know, if he becomes president one day, then I probably have to comment.

Told, “You’re a military guy, he allegedly had national security information”, Crenshaw said:

It’s very problematic, there’s a reason I’m not defending it.

Finally, Raju spoke to Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator from Connecticut who has concerns about the judge in the case, Aileen Cannon, who was appointed under Trump and whose rulings in earlier stages of the case proved controversial in the extreme:

I think the record is a cause for real concern. She has to overcome the presumption arising from her past rulings that he somehow favors the president who appointed her, former president Donald Trump. In the total scheme of things, I’d advise her to recuse.

Here’s more on Cannon:

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, refused to discuss the indictment of Donald Trump during a news conference.

Asked by a CNN reporter if he “could still support” the former president for the Republican nomination if he is convicted of the charges, McConnell replied:

The Republican campaign for the nomination has already been going on for six months, it’s going to be going on for a year longer.
I’m just simply not going to comment on the candidates. We’ve got a bunch of them and I’m just simply going to stay out of it.

Here’s the clip:

Donald Trump and his close aide Walt Nauta are now both under arrest in Miami’s Wilkie D Ferguson Jr US courthouse ahead of their arraignment on federal charges related to the classified government documents found at Mar-a-Lago, CNN reports:

Do not expect the former president to spend the night in jail, at least not yet. According to CNN, Trump is expected to be released on personal recognizance – essentially a promise that he’ll show up for future court dates.

Donald Trump and Walt Nauta, the aide to the former president indicted alongside him over the classified government documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago, have both been processed at Miami’s federal courthouse, a court official tells Reuters.

Defendants are usually fingerprinted and have their mugshots taken in processing, and sometimes handcuffed, but it’s unclear what the exact arrangement is for Trump and Nauta. We’ll let you know more when we find out.