Legal expert: Trump arraignment will be low on drama
Jun 12, 2023, 7:30 PM | Updated: Jun 22, 2023, 4:43 pm
FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks during the North Carolina Republican Party Convention in Greensboro, N.C., Saturday, June 10, 2023. As former President Donald Trump prepares for a momentous court appearance this week on charges related to the hoarding of top-secret documents, Republican allies are amplifying without evidence claims that he’s the target of a political prosecution. Former US Attorney for the District of Utah joined Dave & Dujanovic on Monday to discuss what to expect in the arraignment of the former president. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
SALT LAKE CITY — Former President Donald Trump is expected to be arraigned in Miami on Tuesday, following his indictment on the mishandling of classified documents last week.
On Friday, the 37-page indictment was unsealed against the former president. Former US Attorney for the District of Utah John Huber told KSL NewsRadio’s Dave and Dujanovic that he’s read the indictment and that the allegations are serious.
“Those allegations are so very serious,” Huber said. “. . . I think for people who are observing this and trying to compare this apple to an orange in another case like Hilary Clinton or General Petraeus. I think that a distinguishing characteristic of these allegations is that, one, the former president was asked to return these documents. The allegations suggest that he went the other direction and obstructed those efforts.”
Trump arraignment and the Presidential Records Act
Dave Noriega mentions the Presidential Records Act. It allows a president to have access to classified and unclassified documents after he leaves office. And if the National Archives do want something back, they can negotiate what they can and can’t keep.
Noriega asked, “Can you speak to that at all?”
Huber says occasionally former presidents are brought back into the fold and are asked to visit foreign countries. In order to perform those duties, Huber says the former president needs to have access to certain information.
“To come back into the fold means you need to have information that is likely classified or at least very, very sensitive,” he said. “I think that’s what it contemplates. (And) I don’t know if it contemplates holding boxes of clearly marked confidential up to classified plus, plus information in areas that are not equipped to store those items. I don’t think that’s what the statue contemplates.”
Dujanovic asked, “What happens in an initial court appearance? Like the one we expect to see him in tomorrow at one o’clock our time tomorrow?”
Huber used the word perfunctory to describe the court proceedings on Tuesday.
“Which is a word than means this is very simple,” he said. “It’s short, it’s to the point, it’s checking boxes. Tomorrow’s hearing is going to be low on drama.”
However, he also says tomorrow is the beginning of the storm.
Dave & Dujanovic can be heard on weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon.
Read more:
- Donald Trump described Pentagon plan of attack and shared classified map, indictment says
- Takeaways from the charges against former president Donald Trump
