Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon for his first appearance in a historic criminal case against him.
Trump has been charged with 37 felony counts. The Justice Department said he hoarded top secret government documents, boastfully displayed them to visitors and tried to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.
Please check back for updates throughout the day.
10:30 a.m. | Where will trial take place
Trump’s arraignment is in federal court in Miami, but that doesn’t mean his trial will take place there.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, serving Tuesday as an unpaid legal analyst for MSNBC live coverage of Trump’s first court appearance, told viewers that West Palm Beach is a more logical location.
“There’s no connection between Miami and the Mar-a-Lago documents. It’s just they’re both in the Southern District of Florida,” he said, adding that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is slated to preside over the case, sits in Fort Pierce and the closest courthouse to the site of the alleged wrongdoing is in West Palm Beach.
Aronberg also said the federal government might have a better time persuading a jury drawn from Palm Beach County than one drawn from Miami-Dade County. (Aronberg, who is a former assistant state attorney general, handles state level prosecutions, not federal.)
That’s not just because Palm Beach County “is a bluer place,” he said. “Even though it’s in his (Trump’s) back yard, I think Palm Beach County has a better track record of convicting public officials for corruption. Miami-Dade County not so much.”
10:11 a.m. | Road closures
Miami Police said Northwest First Avenue between Third Street and Fifth Street is closed until further notice.
“We strongly encourage commuters to avoid the area and seek alternate routes, if possible,” police said in a news release Tuesday morning.
Television video showed Miami police…
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