Donald Trump in court for day of reckoning

Miami police are geared for trouble, with crowds of up to 50,000 expected as the former president faces charges of hoarding classified documents.

Donald Trump arrives at the Miami International Airport ahead of a scheduled federal court appearance for his arraignment. Picture: Getty Images

Miami police were geared for trouble overnight on Tuesday, with crowds of up to 50,000 expected as Donald Trump faced charges of hoarding classified documents, in a legal reckoning the former US president has largely ridden out until now.

The former US president was due to appear in a Miami court on Wednesday morning Australian time to answer charges that he lied and schemed to hold on to dozens of government secrets he took to his beachfront mansion in Florida when he left office in 2021.

The high-stakes indictment – which Trump’s supporters say is a politically motivated bid to block their champion’s path back to the White House – has fuelled fears of unrest.

Security was ramped up around Miami’s federal courthouse, with several protests planned including by a local chapter of the far-right Proud Boys group.

Some Republican congress members have been criticised for rhetoric that could inspire violence, including Louisiana’s Clay Higgins, who told supporters at the weekend to “buckle up” and Arizona’s Andy Biggs, who tweeted: “We have now reached a war phase. An eye for an eye.”

Miami mayor Francis Suarez said he hoped the crowds would be peaceful. “We encourage people to be peaceful in demonstrating how they feel,” he said.

Department of Homeland Security police walk around the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States Federal Courthouse before the arraignment of Mr Trump. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Trump was expected to later fly to his golf club in New Jersey to restate his innocence in a speech before supporters.

The twice-impeached Republican, facing charges that can carry decades-long prison sentences, struck a defiant note as he prepared to become the first of America’s 46 presidents to be arraigned in federal court.

“We must all be STRONG and DEFEAT the Communists, Marxists, and Radical Left Lunatics that are systematically destroying our Country,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social network as he flew to spend the night at his Florida golf course, a 25-minute drive from the court.

The runaway frontrunner in the 2024 Republican primary said the latest indictment would not force him to quit the race – teeing up a campaign like no other in history that will pit a legal contest against an electoral one.

“I’ll never leave. Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016,” he told Politico as he campaigned at the weekend.

The billionaire, who turns 77 on Wednesday, is charged with wilfully possessing clearly-marked government secrets, refusing to ­return them and conspiring to ­obstruct investigators seeking to recover them. He is also accused of sharing sensitive US secrets with people who had no security clearance, in a much more serious case than any he has previously faced.

The indictment included photographs showing boxes that were supposed to be in the National Archives stacked at Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump’s Palm Beach residence, in a “ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom and a storage room”.

A picture released by the US District Court Southern District of Florida shows stacks of boxes in a bathroom and shower allegedly in the Lake Room at Mar-a-Lago, the former president's private club. Picture: AFP

The former president has ­rejected as “ridiculous and baseless” the 49-page indictment ­released by the justice department following months of investigation by a special prosecutor.

Mr Trumps’s legal woes are only just beginning, as he faces multiple felony counts in a financial fraud case in New York set to go to trial next March.

Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the documents probe, is also looking into Mr Trump’s involvement in the 2021 US Capitol riot, and state and federal investigators are scrutinising his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

Mr Trump has been impeached twice, he has been accused of interfering in a federal investigation over his campaign’s extensive ties with Russia and he has been found liable at a civil trial for sexual abuse.

His company has been convicted of fraud, his “Trump University” training scheme ceased operations mired in lawsuits and his charity was dissolved by court order amid a litany of controversies.

His campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, personal lawyer, chief strategist, ­national security adviser, foreign policy adviser, campaign fixer and chief financial officer have all been convicted of crimes connected to their time in his orbit and some have faced jail.

AFP