- Trump raises his fist at supporters as he arrived at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce
Former President Donald Trump cut a defiant figure Thursday by thrusting a fist through the window of his armored car as he arrived at a Florida courthouse for the final hearing in the classified documents case.
He is accused of hoarding government files at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving the White House and obstructing efforts to get them back.
Trump, 77, arrived after a series of legal victories in other cases. On Wednesday, a Georgia judge filed six charges in a sweeping conspiracy case against Trump and his allies related to their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
And last week, the Supreme Court ruled that Colorado, or any other state, did not have the power to remove him from the ballot over the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump arrived at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon shortly before the hearing was set to begin.
Former President Donald Trump arrived at a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Thursday for the final hearing in the classified documents case
Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer as he arrives at the federal courthouse
The hearing will focus on interpretations of the Presidential Records Act. Trump’s lawyers say it gave him the authority to designate documents as his personal property and keep them after he leaves office.
Special Counsel Jack Smith instead says the indictment concerns presidential documents and that the law does not apply to the type of classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
In a filing last week, his team said the law “does not exempt Trump from criminal law, give him the right to unilaterally designate top-secret presidential documents as personal documents, or protect him from criminal investigation — let alone prevent him from could hinder federal investigations. investigation with impunity.’
Trump’s legal team hopes Cannon’s ruling will lead to the case being dismissed before it even reaches a jury.
And she has hinted in the past about his status as a former president.
This week, Trump again insisted he had done nothing wrong.
In an interview with Newsmax, he said the matter was handled “very legally” before the “corrupt” FBI raided his Florida home in the summer of August 2022.
“I had to deal with them,” Trump said. ‘We had a great time. And then suddenly they invaded this house. They robbed Mar-a-Lago.”
And he said authorities were applying double standards by not filing charges against President Joe Biden, who also kept documents after his term as vice president ended.
One of the vehicles in Trump’s motorcade Thursday morning
Supporters gathered outside the courthouse Thursday morning
Former President Donald Trump denounced the federal government’s handling of his confidential documents case in an interview with Newsmax on Wednesday
“But they’re letting Biden out,” he raged.
Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 elections on Tuesday.
The latest polls show him with a five-point lead over Biden in the rematch of the 2020 election.
The former president faces 40 felony charges in Florida, accusing him of knowingly retaining dozens of classified documents and failing to comply with demands for their return.
Prosecutors have emphasized in recent court cases the extent of the criminal conduct they say they expect to prove at trial, saying in a court filing that “there has never been an instance in American history where a former official is guilty has engaged in behavior remotely similar to that of Trump.