Tight security measures in place in Miami prior to Trump’s arrival

Miami, Jun 12 (EFE).- Authorities in the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County are implementing tight security measures prior to the imminent arrival of former President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday afternoon will appear in federal court here in the case against him regarding his handling of classified documents.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will hold a press conference on Monday afternoon at which he will outline the security arrangements, which are expected to include closing streets adjacent to the court building where Trump will appear, along with federal offices located in downtown Miami, where for the past several days dozens of reporters and cameramen have been stationed.

Trump will arrive in Miami on Monday afternoon from his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, and he will immediately be transported to one of his own hotels in the city of Doral, in the Miami metro area, where he will spend Monday night.

“Getting ready to head down to Doral in Miami. We must all be STRONG and DEFEAT the Communists, Marxists, and Radical Left Lunatics that are systematically destroying our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” wrote Trump on his Truth Social social network before boarding his plane for Florida.

Trump is scheduled to speak at 6 pm Monday about the ongoing legal proceedings against him in an exclusive interview with Americano Media, the first Hispanic media outlet to interview the former president after Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted him on 37 felony counts for mishandling classified documents after a federal grand jury recommended it on the basis of evidence they had examined.

Presenter Carines Moncada will be the journalist who will speak with the ex-president, Americano Medio announced.

Meanwhile, the US Secret Service, which is tasked with providing security for ex-presidents, had suggested to Trump without success that he travel to Miami on Tuesday morning.

Both Doral authorities and officials at the Miami International Airport have said that although they are prepared for any contingency they also will continue to maintain normal operating procedures.

Miami-Dade County police echoed that statement, noting that so far they have received no request from federal authorities to provide security support.

From the Trump National Doral Miami hotel, the ex-president on Tuesday morning will head to the courthouse, which he will access via an underground tunnel and where US Marshals will take his fingerprints, according to local television channel NBC 6.

After the court hearing, which presumably will be presided over by Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump during his 2017-2021 presidency, the former president will immediately be taken by plane back to New Jersey, where he is scheduled to attend a fundraising event for his presidential campaign.

As US media are reporting, police are monitoring the activities of both pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators who are gathering and preparing outside the courthouse for Trump’s arrival there on Tuesday.

Among the pro-Trump demonstrators are members of a local affiliate of the ultrarightist Proud Boys, some of whom have been found guilty for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

At the court hearing on Tuesday, the team headed by Jack Smith will formally present the 37 charges against Trump, according to the indictment released last Friday concerning dozens of classified documents found by the FBI at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club, home and resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2022.

The unprecedented indictment – which comes amid Trump’s campaign to win the Republican presidential primaries and potentially win a second term in the White House in the 2024 election – has been criticized not only by Trump himself, who claims to be the victim of a “witch hunt,” but also by assorted lawmakers and figures in the GOP as well as aspirants for the Republican presidential nomination such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

During campaign events last weekend in North Carolina and Oklahoma, DeSantis – who is running a distant second to Trump in the voter surveys of Republican voters – criticized the supposed “weaponization” of the US Department of Justice by the Democratic Party and noted that the Democratic presidential candidate Trump defeated in 2016, Hillary Clinton, was never prosecuted for using a private server for her official correspondence while she served as secretary of state.

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter.

Trump called the indictment “ridiculous” and “baseless” at campaign events over the weekend in North Carolina and Georgia.

EFE –/bp