Former President Donald Trump is due to surrender in Miami on Tuesday after his federal indictment last week on 37 charges including unauthorized retention of classified documents and obstruction of justice.
He’s expected to appear for an arraignment around 3 p.m. Eastern time at Miami’s federal courthouse, and he has said he’ll plead not guilty. It’s possible that Trump’s arraignment may have to be postponed if he doesn’t find local counsel, but his surrender still will happen, NBC News reported on Monday.
After his court appearance, Trump is planning to leave Florida and head to New Jersey to give a speech at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster at about 8:15 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday.
Trump spent Monday night in the Miami area, after having said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he was heading to Trump National Doral Miami resort.
Related: The six most serious allegations in the 37-count, classified-documents indictment against Donald Trump
The former president’s appearance in Miami is just one step in a legal battle that will likely take months to play out. His allies have suggested he won’t take a plea deal, and there are expectations that a trial might not take place until next year, as attorneys first could tussle over matters such as motions to dismiss or change-of-venue requests.
Authorities in Miami are preparing for possible protests by Trump supporters near the city’s Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse.
“We encourage people to be peaceful,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican who has been considering competing against Trump and others for their party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
“We’re gonna have the adequate forces to ensure that,” Suarez added, according to a local TV station’s report.
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Another issue getting attention is that a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, has been randomly assigned to oversee the classified-documents case, sparking calls for her to recuse herself. Cannon generated headlines last year for a much-criticized ruling in Trump’s favor in the classified-documents case in which she appointed a special master and temporarily barred prosecutors from records. A three-judge panel later reversed her ruling.
A different judge, Jonathan Goodman, is slated to preside over Tuesday’s arraignment.
Trump has been blasting his indictment, including on Saturday during his first public appearances since the 37 charges were unsealed. He described the charges as an attack on his supporters.
“They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people,” Trump told a crowd in Georgia. “In the end, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you.”
But one of Trump’s former attorneys general, William Barr, characterized the latest indictment of his old boss as “very, very damning” and said the “idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous.”
Trump, who has a big lead in polls for the 2024 Republican presidential primary, faces other legal troubles as well. He was found liable last month for sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit that accused him of rape. He pleaded not guilty in April to 34 felony charges of falsifying records to hide hush-money payments, and that case in Manhattan is ongoing.
The special counsel in the classified-documents case, Jack Smith, also is conducting a separate probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In addition, another investigation in Fulton County, Ga., centers on efforts by Trump and his allies to undo that state’s 2020 election result.
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