This has been CNBC's live blog covering former President Donald Trump's arraignment on federal charges related to his retention of hundreds of classified documents.
Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the first federal charges ever filed against a U.S. president, former or current, hours before he delivered a grievance-packed speech to a cheering crowd of political donors at his New Jersey golf club.
Trump turned himself in at a Miami federal courthouse in the afternoon and was booked on the second set of criminal charges he has faced this year. The leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to 37 counts related to allegations that he kept hundreds of classified documents after he left the White House and resisted efforts to return them to federal recordkeepers.
Trump is charged with willful retention of national defense information; conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; concealing a document in a federal investigation; scheme to conceal; and false statements and representations.
Trump aide and co-defendant Walt Nauta was initially expected to be arraigned Tuesday, but he did not enter a plea as he did not have a local lawyer. He arrived at the courthouse with Trump, surrendered and was booked. As a condition of Trump and Nauta's release, the pair will not be allowed to contact one another.
The former president left the courthouse late Tuesday afternoon to head to his Bedminster, New Jersey, property for a presidential campaign fundraiser on the eve of his 77th birthday. He delivered a speech full of attacks and threats targeting President Joe Biden, Justice Department prosecutors and his other enemies. A Fox News chyron echoed Trump's unfounded claims, calling Biden, who was speaking at a Juneteenth celebration Tuesday night at the White House, a "wannabe dictator."
Tuesday marked the second time in a little over two months that Trump was arraigned on criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty in April to 34 counts of falsifying business records. Those allegations stem from a Manhattan district attorney probe into a payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to buy her silence about an alleged sexual tryst with Trump years earlier.
The former president faces more possible legal exposure beyond the two charged cases. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought charges against Trump in the documents probe, is also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 election win.
Fani Willis, the district attorney in the Atlanta-area Fulton County, is also probing Trump's scheme to reverse Biden's 2020 victory in Georgia.
Trump will wade through the legal fights as he holds a commanding lead in early polls of the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Republicans have largely defended the former president's conduct and accused the Justice Department of running a politically motivated probe. Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, chose Smith to oversee the investigation to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest.
— CNBC's Amanda Macias and Mike Calia contributed
Former President Trump delivered a series of familiar campaign talking points and grievances Tuesday night in his first speech since pleading not guilty to federal criminal charges.
He delivered an extended diatribe against special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the federal probe into Trump's post-presidency retention of classified documents that led to his indictment on 37 counts. He also asserted that he had the legal right to keep those records, while claiming that he was being treated unfairly by a politically motivated Justice Department that has not gone after his political opponents in the same way.
Yet Trump also vowed that, if elected in 2024, he would appoint his own special prosecutor to "go after" President Joe Biden.
Legal experts have been quick to point out that Trump's case, which involves alleged violations of the Espionage Act and alleged conspiracy to obstruct the government, differs significantly from other instances of politicians holding onto records after leaving office.
"They ought to drop this case immediately," Trump said to the crowd that had gathered at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.
While he spent much of his speech raging against his latest legal threat, Trump also touched on some of the policy lines that he has regularly deployed on the campaign trail. He vowed to close the U.S.-Mexico border and "immediately" end Russia's war against Ukraine.
The former president, who has now been indicted twice since announcing his 2024 White House bid, appeared poised to return to the campaign trail as soon as he left the Miami federal courthouse. Trump's motorcade stopped at a well-known restaurant for a surprise meet-and-greet with a friendly crowd before he traveled back to Bedminster for a campaign-style event before an even bigger crowd of supporters.
The evening also included a campaign fundraiser expected to raise several million dollars. Trump has peppered his supporters with fundraising appeals since Thursday night, when he revealed he had been indicted on federal charges in the documents case.
— Kevin Breuninger
Former President Donald Trump claimed that hundreds of classified documents seized from his Florida resort belonged to him, and that he had not been given enough time to go through his personal papers and separate out the classified documents.
Speaking after pleading not guilty on 37 counts related to mishandling classified documents, Trump claimed the classified records were among boxes "containing all types of personal belongings" and that he hadn't had a chance yet to go through them and return the classified ones.
"I hadn't had a chance to go through all the boxes. It's a long tedious job takes a long time, which I was prepared to do, but I have a very busy life," Trump said to a crowd assembled for a fundraiser.
But the federal indictment tells a different story. According to the Justice Department, Trump orchestrated a yearlong scheme to keep scores of classified documents, and refused to return them. The indictment also cites a recording of Trump in 2021 discussing a secret document during a meeting and noting that he no longer had power to de-classify it since he was out of office.
"I don't want anybody looking through my boxes," Trump told one of his lawyers in 2022.
Trump is also accused of directing his personal valet to hide documents from investigators.
— Christina Wilkie
Former Vice President Mike Pence told The Wall Street Journal that he wanted to "reserve judgement" until his ex-boss, Donald Trump, had an opportunity to present his defense against a 37-count criminal indictment unsealed last week. Still, he acknowledged the gravity of the charges.
"These are very serious allegations. And I can't defend what is alleged. But the president is entitled to his day in court, he's entitled to bring a defense and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond," Pence, who recently filed paperwork to run in the 2024 presidential election, told The Wall Street Journal.
"Frankly, having two members of our immediate family serving in the armed forces of the United States, I will never diminish the importance of protecting our nation's secrets," he added, referring to the trove of classified documents Trump kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Pence said that while "no one is above the law," all U.S. citizens are "innocent until proven guilty." He also slammed the Justice Department and said he thinks the case against Trump is politicized.
If elected in 2024 to serve the nation's highest office, Pence vows to "give the Department of Justice a fresh start, with men and women who are respected on both sides of the aisle for their commitment to the law," he told the Journal.
Pence is considered a longshot candidate. Trump, meanwhile, is currently the clear frontrunner in the Republican primary field.
— Amanda Macias
The sheriff's office in Fulton County, Georgia, confirmed Tuesday that it had sent officials to Miami to gather security intelligence ahead of another potential indictment of former President Trump.
Trump, who was arraigned on federal charges Tuesday in Miami, is being investigated in a separate criminal probe in Georgia over his attempts to overturn Joe Biden's election victory there in 2020. The district attorney in Fulton County, Fani Willis, has advised law enforcement authorities to prepare for potential security challenges this summer. She is expected to make a charging decision in the case come August.
The Fulton County Sheriff's Office also said in a news release that it sent officials to New York to gather similar intelligence. Trump in early April pleaded not guilty to criminal charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg.
"Based on notice provided by the Fulton County District Attorney's office regarding the intent to announce charging decisions this summer related to the criminal investigation 'into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election,' the Fulton County Sheriff's Office (FCSO) is coordinating with local, state, and federal agencies to ensure that our law enforcement community is equipped and prepared to protect the public," the sheriff's office said.
–Mike Calia
Just a day after calling for a funding cut for the "rogue" Justice Department over the indictment of Donald Trump, GOP Rep. Tim Burchett told reporters that he wouldn't support the former president if he were convicted in special counsel Jack Smith's classified documents case.
"I just have to read the conviction, but no, honestly on the surface I wouldn't," he said in response to a question over whether he would be OK with a convicted felon as the Republican presidential nominee. "It doesn't look good. But let's see what the conviction says. Let's see if he is convicted."
On Monday, Burchett told Newsmax that the DOJ is "out of control" while slamming the department for charging Trump with allegedly violating the Espionage Act.
Trump at the moment is the clear frontrunner ahead of the 2024 primary, according to recent polling, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a distant second.
–Mike Calia
Trump's legal problems aren't confined to Miami, as a federal judge in Manhattan made clear later Tuesday.
Hours after Trump's historic arraignment on federal criminal charges, Judge Lewis Kaplan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan granted writer E. Jean Carroll's request to update her original civil defamation lawsuit against the former president.
The lawsuit, which now seeks at least $10 million in damages, was amended to include a bevy of disparaging remarks Trump made about Carroll during a live town hall on CNN on May 10.
That event came one day after a jury in a civil case found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll and ordered him to pay her a total of $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Trump has denied raping Carroll. He has moved to appeal the verdict in Carroll's second case.
"We look forward to moving ahead expeditiously on E. Jean Carroll's remaining claims," Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement to CNBC following Kaplan's latest order Tuesday afternoon.
Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said in a statement to NBC News: "We maintain that she should not be permitted to retroactively change her legal theory, at the eleventh hour, to avoid the consequences of an adverse finding against her."
— Kevin Breuninger
Former President Trump left Miami late Tuesday afternoon to fly back to New Jersey, home to his Bedminster golf club.
Trump is set to host a 2024 campaign fundraiser Tuesday night in celebration of his 77th birthday, which is Wednesday.
–Mike Calia
Walt Nauta, former President Trump's close aide and co-defendant, was not arraigned Tuesday, after all. He will need an attorney who is from the Southern District of Florida.
HIs arraignment is now scheduled for the morning of June 27, according to NBC News.
– Mike Calia
Trump's motorcade stopped at Versailles, a famous Cuban restaurant in Miami with a long history as a political campaign hub, just after leaving federal court.
Trump shook hands, patted backs and spoke to people in the restaurant during the unannounced stop, according to video aired by multiple news outlets. Religious leaders prayed with the former president.
Onlookers, which appeared to include a highly supportive mix of restaurant patrons and Trump's aides, crowded around the former president to greet and take photos with him.
The move capitalized on the wall-to-wall coverage of Trump's indictment, turning the spectacle into a de facto campaign ad. Trump is set to travel to New Jersey later Tuesday to attend a fundraiser.
— Kevin Breuninger
Trump's Tuesday night fundraiser at his golf club in New Jersey is set to feature a litany of allies, including My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Trump White House advisor Sebastian Gorka, according to nametags on seats for attendees at the venue reviewed by NBC News.
Trump is scheduled to return to his Bedminster, New Jersey property Tuesday after being arraigned in a Miami courtroom and pleading not guilty to slew of federal charges tied to his handling of classified documents. Other Trump allies heading to the event include Bernie Moreno, a Trump-endorsed Ohio Senate candidate, and Jeff Gunter, a potential Nevada Senate candidate.
The golf course will host Trump and his allies for a fundraiser that calls on donors to to raise or give $100,000 for the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee. That amount allows contributors to have a "private candlelight dinner" with the former president and to join a VIP reception with "elected officials & special guests," according to an invite to the event.
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks from his property just after 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
The former president's 2024 campaign has been fundraising throughout the day off the arraignment.
— Brian Schwartz
Trump and Nauta were released on their own recognizance without facing any travel restrictions, NBC News reported.
But the federal magistrate judge overseeing the arraignment ordered the creation of a limited list of witnesses and victims that Trump cannot contact, except through his lawyers, for the duration of the case.
That list will include Nauta, NBC reported.
— Kevin Breuninger
After pleading not guilty in a brief but historic arraignment, Trump left the federal courthouse in Miami and returned to his motorcade, leaving behind throngs of demonstrators and journalists who had clustered outside the building.
Trump, who has vowed to keep up his campaign for the White House even if convicted, is set to travel to a fundraiser this evening at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
— Kevin Breuninger
President Donald Trump was feeling "defiant" as he was arraigned on 37 federal counts relating to classified documents he refused to return to the government after his time in office, said Trump lawyer Alina Habba.
Habba spoke to reporters outside the Miami courtroom where Trump and his valet Walt Nauta surrendered and were placed under arrest. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, which arose from his refusal to return hundreds of classified documents he took with him when he left the White House.
"Countless other individuals, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden himself, retained possession of classified documents and yet have not been prosecuted," Habba said, a familiar line among Trump supporters, which ignores the fact that both Clinton and Biden returned the records to the government immediately after learning of them.
Trump on the other hand allegedly spent more than a year obstructing efforts by the National Archives and Records Administration to secure the documents, a charge detailed in the meticulous 49-page indictment.
Habba claimed Trump's indictment was the latest chapter in a nefarious plan.
"In recent years, we have seen the rise of politically motivated prosecutors who don't care for impartiality, who don't care for due process or equal protection of laws," she said without evidence.
Habba accused the Justice Department of "quietly but aggressively cultivating a two-tiered system of justice," where prosecutors investigating potential crimes by Trump are on one tier, and everyone else is on the other.
— Christina Wilkie
Trump has pleaded not guilty to a historic 37-count indictment charging him with improperly taking classified documents to his resort home Mar-a-Lago and then misleading the federal government when it sought to take the records back.
Trump, who is now the first ex-president to face federal criminal charges, sat expressionless in the courtroom during the proceedings, NBC News reported.
Trump's attorney Todd Blanche entered the not guilty plea on the former president's behalf, according to NBC.
— Kevin Breuninger
Trump is inside the courtroom to face charges in the documents case, news outlets reported.
The federal magistrate judge overseeing the arraignment has barred any photos or videos from being taken in the courtroom or the outside corridor prior to the court proceedings.
— Kevin Breuninger
Trump and his also-indicted aide Walt Nauta have completed the booking process in a Miami federal courthouse, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals told NBC News.
— Kevin Breuninger
Longtime Trump ally Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said in an interview on Tuesday that he "would not feel comfortable with a convicted felon in the White House" as the former president surrendered at a Miami court to face federal criminal charges.
Buck referred to the former president's own words during his presidential win in 2016, when he said Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton should not be in the White House because of her handling of her personal email server.
"Let's look at Donald Trump's words in 2016," Buck told CNN. "He said that Hillary Clinton was unfit for the White House for the way she handled classified information... So I think his words have set the standard that America will look at in determining whether he is fit for the presidency."
— Brian Schwartz
Former President Donald Trump's co-defendant, his valet Waltine "Walt" Nauta, arrived at the Miami courthouse along with his boss.
Nauta is charged with six federal counts, far fewer than Trump's 37 counts. The charges against Nauta are related to his alleged role in helping the former president hide classified documents from the FBI.
In addition to charges of concealing federal documents and obstructing justice, Nauta is also charged with lying to investigators about what Trump asked him to do with boxes of presidential documents.
— Christina Wilkie
Trump has arrived at the Miami federal courthouse for his unprecedented arraignment on federal criminal charges.
His motorcade's trip from Trump National Doral Miami took approximately 25 minutes.
— Kevin Breuninger
Two Republican officials from Nevada were spotted entering the room in the Washington, D.C., federal courthouse where a grand jury is meeting as part of a special counsel probe into the events surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, NBC News reported.
The federal criminal investigation into Trump is the second that the Justice Department had tapped Jack Smith to oversee as special counsel.
Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald and Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid were both seen inside the district court building heading into the grand jury room Tuesday afternoon, NBC reported.
McDonald told NBC last year that he was interviewed by the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol after Trump spent months falsely insisting the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
Both men participated in a scheme to try to keep Trump in power by sending a false electoral certificate to Congress asserting that Trump won Nevada over the actual winner, President Joe Biden.
— Kevin Breuninger