Good afternoon. Welcome to Meet the Press. Now I'm Chuck Todd reporting from Florida and continuing NBC's breaking news coverage of the arraignment of Donald John Trump, the first time a former president has ever been arraigned on federal criminal charges, pleading not guilty to all 37 counts against him. The former president departed the courthouse a short time ago.
He's now heading to the Miami airport. From there, he will fly back to his golf club in New Jersey. That's where he plans to address supporters tonight from his club, where he'll be spending the summer months. Moments before that, the former president made an unannounced stop, though it appeared to be somewhat planned out as supporters were waiting for him at the well-known Cuban cafe in Miami, particularly for politicians, Versailles.
It has been a must-visit spot for Republican candidates whether you're running for dog catcher or president of the United States. You could be heard giving supporters an impromptu stump speech while calling the U.S. a nation in decline. It was quite the spectacle, somewhat unnerving for those of us who grew up in South Florida seeing that's more of a symbol of sort of freedom and rule of law and things like that.
To see it in a moment like this was startling for some of us. But let's back up for a moment. Here's how we got there. Mr.
Trump left his club in Doral, Florida, not very far from downtown Miami earlier this afternoon. He arrived at the courthouse shortly before 2 p.m. Then he was booked, electronically fingerprinted and appeared before a magistrate judge. That's where he officially pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts tied to his mishandling of classified documents.
According to one of our reporters who was inside the courtroom to witness the event, Donald Trump sat stone-faced. His body man, an alleged co-conspirator, Walt Nauta, was seated beside him. Nauta was not arraigned today because he did not have local legal representation. He'll likely be arraigned in South Florida later this month.
NBC News has also learned that Special Counsel Jack Smith was in the courthouse during the proceedings. As the former president was preparing to leave for court, he again decried the indictment, calling it, quote, one of the saddest days in the history of our country. And the investigation, quote, election interference because he decided to announce his candidacy as he knew these legal troubles were coming. And of course, he used the phrase witch hunt.
We then saw the chaotic scene as Trump's motorcade left the courthouse and route to the airport. A handful of protesters appeared to run alongside. One tried to get in front of his motorcade, which appeared to be the former president's vehicle. You saw Secret Service had to get out, tackle this person.
Till that moment, though, protests outside the courthouse this afternoon had been largely quite peaceful with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies having a very visible presence on the ground to discourage, so they hoped, moments like what we saw as the motorcade left. And as we track the former president's movements, we want to remind you that this is not Donald Trump's first arraignment. And with two open investigations, one in Washington, the other in Fulton County, Georgia, may very well not be his last this calendar year. And yet the former president, twice impeached, twice indicted, who was also found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, remains the Republican Party front runner for the presidential nomination.
Frankly, it's not that close. So joining me now is our NBC News team that's on the ground in South Florida and in Washington. Our justice and intelligence correspondent, Ken Delaney. He's outside the courthouse in Miami.
In a moment, we'll be joined by Guad Venegas, who was with the former president at Versailles in Little Havana in Miami. Gabe Gutierrez was also in Miami and Vaughn Hilliard is in Bedminster with the president. Let me with the former president, excuse me. Let me start with Ken Delanian.
Ken, you were able to, I believe, get inside the courthouse. Tell me your firsthand account. Obviously, there was a lot of this is perfunctory if this were any other American citizen. Obviously, being a former president, nothing feels normal.
What did you see? Perfunctory is a great word for it, Chuck, but there is nothing I've ever experienced like hearing a judge talk about a case called the United States of America versus Donald J. Trump. That is there's nothing perfunctory about that.
That was actually remarkable. But other than that, you're right. I mean, this thing follows a script. This was a first appearance and an arraignment before Mr.
Trump got to the courtroom with his co-defendant, Walt Nauta. They were both booked and processed by the federal marshals. And we're told that Mr. Trump's digital fingerprints were taken and that they did not take a mugshot.
They used another photo, one of the many millions of photos available of Donald Trump as his booking photo. Inside the courtroom, there was a table with lawyers from the special counsel's office, David Harbach, who left the law firm and joined this investigation. Jay Bratt, who's the chief of the counterespionage section of the Justice Department and has been involved in this since the very beginning. He was one of the lawyers that went down in June to serve the subpoena at Mar-a-Lago last June.
And then Julie Edelstein, a lawyer from the National Security Division. On the defense side of the table, Mr. Trump and Walt Nauta were flanked by their lawyers. Trump represented by Christopher Keyes, a Florida attorney and Todd Blanche, his New York lawyer, who was admitted into this case in Florida by the judge, Aileen Cannon.
Walt Nauta represented only by a Washington, D.C. counselor, Stanley Woodward. So he actually wasn't arraigned today. He didn't enter a plea.
But essentially, they waived reading of the indictment. The judge asked how Mr. Trump pleaded and Todd Blanche said we most certainly plead not guilty. Trump didn't say a word.
He was stone faced. He consulted with his lawyers. He was wearing a dark blue suit and a red tie. You know, really not much else to say about it.
After I left the courtroom because I had to get out and get out and sort of announce the news that Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty. The judge did impose an interesting condition that Mr. Trump not have contact with the witnesses in this case, many of whom actually work for him, including Mr.
Nauta. So that's it's going to be I'm sorry, not not have contact, not discuss the case with these witnesses. So that's sort of, I guess, on the honor system, how that works out. But one of many historic days we're going to see, Joe.
Let me ask you, I mean, one, are they going to form a joint defense or is that not going to happen? Did Mr. Nauta think it was going to happen? I mean, is that what why he ended up with no counsel?
No, no, I think this is a joint defense because remember, Stanley Woodward, his lawyer, has been paid for by a Trump political action committee all along. And when the Justice Department went to him and went to Nauta and asked, would you you know, we think you lied to us. Will you cooperate? He told him to go pound sand.
You know, they're basically Nauta has maintained a united front with Trump despite an opportunity to flip on Trump. That's the bottom line. And so, look, that could always change. Right.
But at this moment, Nauta is represented by a lawyer that's being paid for with Trump political funds. So it is a it is a united front. Now, we know that Judge Aileen Cannon is likely to be the actual federal judge to oversee this case. When is the first time?
When is it? I guess maybe when, when would we have a hearing in front of her for the first time? So they didn't they didn't set a schedule today. So we're not it's not entirely clear, but it should be soon within a week or two or a couple of weeks.
Typically, a federal case can take about a year to get to trial. This isn't a very complex case, but there's some issues that need to be hashed out, particularly on the classified information. But it could take a lot longer than that if some significant issues are litigated and then have to go to the appeals court. So that's what we're looking at.
We're looking at a case that could be it could take six months. It could take a year. It could also still be pending by the time the 2024 presidential election rolls around, which is a kind of an outcome that is almost hard to imagine. Yeah.
Ken, did you see hear anything from the defense team that gave you a hint at what the various delay tactics are going to look like? We know that's a strategy. And by the way, as you and I are talking, we are showing pictures of the motorcade is now on. This is not the way most people get to board a plane on the tarmac of Miami International Airport as they head to the actual plane itself.
And he will walk onto his Trump branded plane there. But did you get a sense of what the delay tactics will look like? Not at this hearing. No.
I mean, legal experts have said that one of the obvious avenues for them to attack is the ruling, the secret ruling by a judge in Washington, D.C. that allowed the prosecution to pierce attorney client privilege by invoking the so-called crime fraud exception. And by doing that, they got one of the most powerful pieces of evidence in this case, which is a series of notes that were originated as iPhone memos by Evan Corcoran, one of Trump's key lawyers in this case. And that was incredibly, incredibly damaging and quoted verbatim in the indictment that used to support Republicans will protest in favor or against anything that's making them happy.
This is the famous H Street or Galio here in Miami. You know, Chuck, I think there's two places in Miami where you find strong Latino support for the Republican Party and Donald Trump. One is, of course, Doral, where the Trump golf resort is, where he stayed. And the other one is here in Little Havana at the Faber site.
So, of course, this was one of the places where he would arrive and have all the support. The people here were thrilled to have him come by now. Chuck, that was a non-scheduled stop. So when we saw the Secret Service arrive, you know, security detail that we ourselves were working with at NBC explained to us what was happening.
And it was quite interesting, Chuck, to hear him explain that an unscheduled stop like this one could be a nightmare for the Secret Service. They had to sweep as many people as they could. And it was difficult because people were so happy and excited when they found out that Donald Trump was coming that they started rushing this area. So it was a bit of chaos here right before he arrived.
And as you saw in the images, when he arrived, the people were happy. Another surreal thing, Chuck, they were playing salsa music. It was a Latino party with salsa music and Donald Trump right here with his supporters. You don't see a scene like this anywhere else in the U.S.
That's what's very unique about the Hispanic community here in South Florida. And you can hear people speaking behind me and the conversations here are, of course, in support of Donald Trump. We've heard on and on again people yelling Donald Trump for president again. So this is to see what it's like.
There's a vehicle driving right next to me with flags, Trump team 2024. We've seen that all day, vehicles that drive by, honk and support the protesters. So perhaps quite different from what you would see in any other any other Hispanic communities in the U.S., Chuck. No, it is quite the scene.
I mean, here we used to spend the night in Little Caracas, which is what Doral has basically become unofficially. And he stopped in Little Havana right before he takes off. These were not accidents. He's politically couldn't be better situated, at least for his image conscious self in both of these moments.
Here, Juan Benegas was terrific on the ground reporting for us. Thank you. Let me move over to Sam Brock, because, Sam, largely your reporting all day had been it's pretty peaceful. We're in pretty good shape.
Looks like authorities did a good job of showing themselves. And then the motorcade moved and we saw the vulnerability in real time. You saw Secret Service agents jump out. You don't see that very often.
What seemed like a really tight security situation suddenly was not very tight. And you got sort of showcasing this. You said, you know, people can get really close here. They can get really close.
Well, lo and behold, they did. Let me just say, Chuck, it's a very good thing that there were not any serious injuries that we're aware of or physical confrontations. But we saw signs, little hints that, you know, maybe security had some vulnerabilities throughout the day, namely the fact that there was a gentleman carrying a sign. I'm not talking about the person that rushed at the motorcade who was walking alongside the federal courthouse before Trump even arrived for the arraignment carrying a sign that said this ain't Fifth Avenue.
And he was immediately accosted by DHS officials and moved. But he was walking right along the building after this all been taped off. And namely, that's really the heart of the problem here, at least in the federal government standpoint. You know, the U.S.
Secret Service does have a U.S. Marshals has jurisdictional authority over the actual courthouse itself. But they are cooperating and working with Miami police. And Miami police made the decision to have all these folks out here where you can actually walk onto the street.
And you'll see behind me. There's this tape. There is a police barricade. And this was even fortified earlier today.
And there's a street across the way where the motorcade came out. It was cordoned off. But if you wanted to just walk down here, hundreds of people, Chuck, without any sort of detection, no metal detectors. There were police officers on the ground, but everyone was just kind of clumped together in this space.
Hundreds of people just standing right here within proximity to the building. And the irony to all of this is the U.S. Secret Service, which has commented on the general dynamic and so they were concerned about lack of a hardened perimeter, did say that they were not necessarily concerned about the former president. They were concerned about the people out in his closet because it would just be so easy in a state like Florida where gun laws are so loose to carry a weapon.
And they said if there was any level of combustion, things could go haywire in a second. What ended up happening is everything was pretty calm out here. But somehow someone was able to rush at the motorcade. How he got back there, no idea.
Certainly none of the folks out here were able to gain access to the other side of the building, but he did and rushed at the Trump motorcade with a sign. And as you said, was tackled by Secret Service. So it's gonna be very interesting to see what Miami City Police Department has to say about the planning, the good part that there was nothing that really blew up out here, but also the bad part, which is someone got that close to a former presidential motorcade. There's no doubt that there is going to be probably an assessment of how to protect this courthouse and when the trial itself and the next events there happen.
Sam Brock covering all the protest for Sam. Thank you. Well, let's let's get a preview of what we can expect tonight in New Jersey at his golf club from Bedminster. As you can see right now, Donald Trump at his plane is on the tarmac here getting ready to take off and head to New Jersey.
We're already there. That's where we find Vaughn Hilliard. So Vaughn, we have an idea of who's going to be in the audience tonight. In fact, one of the who's is a senator who ended up inadvertently helping the Biden administration get a nominee cleared because he decided to hurry up and get to Bedminster and skip votes.
And that's Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama. But what have you learned? Who's gonna be there tonight? What do we expect?
Anything new to the former president's rhetoric? Right, Donald Trump, I don't think has made it a secret to anybody. He's been quite explicit in stating that loyalty is key to his own political endeavors, but also the way that he suggested to the millions of Americans who have voted for him and are considering voting for him is that it's the way to be successful for the conservative movement, the MAGA movement. Not only is Tommy Tuberville gonna be here, but also a name, Bernie Moreno.
He is from Ohio. He is a U.S. Senate candidate. Trump has suggested positive things about him in the past, leading to a potential endorsement of him.
But there's also Jeff Gunter, who is considering a Senate run in Nevada. He will be here tonight. And that is because when you look at the politics of this, Donald Trump still holds significant weight among the Republican electorate. And you see that in the polling that came out from CBS yesterday in which 76% of likely Republican voters believe that this is political persecution, that political targeting of Donald Trump.
And, you know, if you go back to last year, Chuck, well, Donald Trump, several of his endorsed candidates lost in the general election. He effectively purged the loudest critics within his party, the likes of Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Tom Rice. And so when you look at the crowd here, Donald Trump is going to give these primetime remarks in front of potentially, you know, a couple hundred folks here, but also millions of Americans are going to hear him on outlets like Fox, on OAN, on Newsmax. And the reality that Donald Trump has painted for those millions of Americans is a far different one than what is laid out by the Department of Justice and the special counsel in that indictment released here this weekend.
Well, it'll be interesting tonight. I wonder if the rhetoric will seem repetitive rather than new, but we shall see. Vaughn Hilliard with a preview of what to expect. Vaughn, thank you.
Join me now as a couple of our legal experts to sort of break down what we didn't see today ourselves, but what they know happened in that courtroom. We've got Sydney Olsen, a former federal prosecutor and NBC News legal analyst. And also with me is Bradley Moss, an attorney who specializes in national security issues, which, of course, is classified document situation. Sydney, let me just simply start with you.
I think the biggest, I guess, small surprise is what we saw with the co-conspirator on the fact that somehow he's going to stay the valet, but they've been ordered not to communicate. He doesn't yet have legal representation in South Florida. This seems unusual to me. How unusual is this?
Well, I think it's pretty unusual, but he'll get the representation. There'll be a joint defense agreement and they'll be able to talk with their lawyers present. It's a weird situation because of the employment agreement. And quite frankly, how is it going to be enforced?
I mean, either one of them is gonna, I mean, Trump's not gonna tell the truth about who he talks to about that. So we'll just see how that plays out. The interesting thing is down the road, if he ever flips, is there a danger to Trump if he has in fact violated the court's orders? But I'm not sure he's going to flip.
People seem to be Take place with someone who's on the campaign trail while having to be present for these different cases. How many of these different cases can they do at one time leading up to this election? We don't know. It's gonna be fascinating to watch and quite the spectacle, and frankly, quite the education, I think, for a lot of lawyers these days, for all of us.
Cynthia, Bradley, thank you, and thank you all for being with us for this truncated version of Meet the Press Now. Got a busy day. I'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now and NBC News Now coverage continues with this continuing breaking news. He was a young Marine.
She didn't care about convention. They made a life together. Then one night, the Marine died. And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected, and utterly bizarre turn.
I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all-new podcast from Dateline. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion now, wherever you get your podcasts.