Former President Donald Trump arrived in Miami on Monday to face federal criminal charges as a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the case has not affected his chances of re-election.
Trump is scheduled to appear in a Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) for his initial hearing in the case.
Accused of unlawfully retaining U.S. national security documents and lying to officials who attempted to recover them, Trump has asserted his innocence and vowed to continue his campaign to regain the presidency in the November 2024 election.
At the age of 77, Trump landed in Miami at 2:54 p.m. (1854 GMT) aboard a private jet with his name prominently displayed on the side. Supporters gathered outside a nearby golf club he owns, where he was expected to stay for the night.
"I HOPE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS WATCHING WHAT THE RADICAL LEFT ARE DOING TO AMERICA," he wrote on his Truth Social social media platform before departing from New Jersey.
Despite his legal troubles, Trump's popularity among Republican voters remains unaffected.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday revealed that 81% of Republicans believed the charges against him were politically motivated. The poll also showed that Trump continues to lead his competitors for the party's presidential nomination by a significant margin.
Approximately 43% of self-identified Republicans stated that Trump was their preferred candidate, while 22% chose Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. In early May, Trump led DeSantis 49% to 19%, but that was before DeSantis formally entered the race.
Trump addressed an enthusiastic crowd in Georgia over the weekend, and his campaign announced that he would make a statement on Tuesday night upon his return to New Jersey.
Given the recent memory of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, security concerns have been raised.
Miami Police Chief Manny Morales stated that the city was preparing for a crowd of up to 50,000 people and would close roads in the downtown area if necessary.
Special Counsel Jack Smith accuses Trump of taking thousands of papers containing some of the nation's most sensitive national security secrets when he left the White House in January 2021 and storing them haphazardly at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to a grand jury indictment released last week.
Photos included in the indictment show boxes of documents stored on a ballroom stage, in a bathroom, and scattered across a storage room floor.
The indictment alleges that Trump lied to officials who attempted to retrieve the documents.
While Trump is the first former or current president to face criminal charges, legal experts state that this does not prevent him from running for president or assuming office even if found guilty.
Legal experts, including Trump's former Attorney General William Barr, believe that the case against him is strong. The charges include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Any federal trial in Florida may not take place until after the November 2024 presidential election. Additionally, Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March 2024 in a separate case in a New York state court related to a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Trump accuses Democratic President Joe Biden of orchestrating the federal case to undermine his campaign. Biden has distanced himself from the case and declined to comment on it.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, leading the prosecution, is granted a greater degree of independence than other Justice Department prosecutors to minimize political factors. He is also investigating Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia commons.