Trump pleads not guilty in classified documents case

Former United States of America President Donald J. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to alleged mishandling of classified documents.

“We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the judge at a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday.

Trump, who is also running for the 2024 Presidential Election, was arrested in court where then heard all charges brought against him.

Trump's arrest is not the only abnormal aspect in this trial.

Normally, criminal defendants who are taken into custody before an initial federal court appearance are often handcuffed, fingerprinted, and photographed for a mug shot.

However, deputy marshals booked the former president and took electronic copies of his fingerprints only before the arraignment.

They also did not take a mugshot of Trump since he is easily recognizable.

The booking process took about 10 minutes, international media reports.

Trump’s case has been assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who earlier handled a lawsuit he filed challenging the F.B.I.’s court-authorised search of his Florida estate and club, Mar-a-Lago.

That search came in August, after Trump had not fully cooperated with a subpoena requiring him to give back all the documents with classification markings that he still had.

Special prosecutor Jack Smith has been overseeing the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents since his appointment by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November. 

Last year, the FBI searched Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, seizing around 11,000 documents, including approximately 100 marked as classified and some labelled as top secret. 

Recent reports also suggest that prosecutors possess an audio recording in which Trump acknowledges retaining a classified document after leaving the White House in January 2021. 

According to US law, federal officials, including the president, are prohibited from removing or storing classified documents in unauthorized locations.