Police in Miami have said the city is ready for protests potentially involving up to 50,000 people when former US president Donald Trump appears in court on Tuesday.
Mr Trump is facing 37 charges arising from his handling of classified documents which were taken from the White House to his residence and club, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, during his time in office.
A total of 31 of the charges relate to the wilful retention of national defence information. Other charges include conspiracy to commit obstruction and false statements. If convicted, he could face years in prison.
An aide to Mr Trump is also facing charges on foot of an indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith last week.
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Prosecutors have contended that documents which Mr Trump stored at Mar-a-Lago included material relating to the US nuclear programme, the country’s vulnerabilities to attack and plans for retaliation.
Weaponised
Mr Trump has condemned the prosecution as “a witch hunt” and argued that it was aimed at undermining his campaign to win the presidency again next year. His allies have also maintained that President Joe Biden’s administration had “weaponised” the US Department of Justice to go after its chief political rival.
The former president, and police in Florida, have urged his supporters to protest peacefully in Miami where he is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon.
Francis Suarez, Miami’s mayor, said he was confident the city’s police would be able to handle the crowds and any protests if they took place.
Miami police chief Manuel Morales said the downtown area of the city could see anywhere from a few thousand up to 50,000 protesters. He said the city would be diverting traffic and possibly blocking streets depending on crowd size.
“Make no mistake about it, we are taking this event extremely seriously. We know there is a potential of things taking a turn for the worse but that’s not the Miami way,” he said.
Mr Trump is currently the frontrunner to secure the Republican party nomination to run for the presidency again next year. He said at the weekend that there were no circumstances “whatsoever” that he would pull out of the contest despite his growing legal difficulties.
[ Dark clouds over Mar-a-Lago as Trump returns to Florida to appear in courtOpens in new window ]
Politically motivated
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday found that 81 per cent of Republicans thought the charges being brought against the former president were politically motivated. The poll also found Mr Trump continued to lead his rivals for the party’s presidential nomination by a wide margin.
The businessman is already facing a criminal trial in New York in March of next year in a case involving alleged hush money payments made just before the 2016 election to a porn star who claimed she had had an affair with him. Mr Trump has denied the claims.
The former president has said he will make a public statement on Tuesday night when he returns from Florida to his golf club in New Jersey.
On Monday, Mr Trump said on his social media platform that if re-elected to the White House he would appoint a special prosecutor to target US president Joe Biden and his family.
In a post on Truth Social, written in all capital letters, Mr Trump said: “Now that the ‘seal’ is broken, in addition to closing the border & removing all of the ‘criminal’ elements that have illegally invaded our country, making United States energy independent & even dominant again, & immediately ending the war between Russia & Ukraine, I will appoint a real special ‘prosecutor’ to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the USA, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family, & all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders, & country itself!”
