Former US president Donald Trump is reportedly conducting last-minute interviews for lawyers, hours before he appears in a Miami courtroom to face federal criminal charges.
Mr Trump touched down in Miami on Monday afternoon (local time), ahead of his scheduled appearance in a Florida federal courthouse at 3pm on Tuesday (5am Wednesday, AEST) for an initial appearance in the case.
Accused of unlawfully keeping US national-security documents and lying to officials who tried to recover them, Mr Trump has proclaimed his innocence and vowed to continue his campaign to regain the presidency in a November 2024 election.
Mr Trump, who turns 77 on Wednesday, touched down in Miami on Monday in a private jet with his name emblazoned on the side.
“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.
One of his first moves on arriving in Florida was reportedly to interview prospective lawyers and meet his legal team, along with other advisers, to discuss the case.
The Washington Post and other US media are reporting that several prominent local lawyers have declined to take on Mr Trump as a client after two of the key lawyers in the case — Jim Trusty and John Rowley — resigned last week.
Mr Trump is expected to be accompanied to court in Miami by lawyer Todd Blanche. He also represents the former US president in his New York criminal case involving an alleged 2016 hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
But Mr Trump must be formally represented in court by “a member in good standing of the Florida bar”, or a lawyer who can be sponsored by one before appearing.
Flag-waving Trump supporters and protesters lined the former president’s route from the airport to his Trump National Doral Miami hotel. He was expected to spend the night there, before heading to court.
Much larger crowds are expected outside court on Tuesday. With memories fresh of the January 6, 2021, assault by Mr Trump supporters on the US Capitol, officials have raised security concerns.
But the Miami police department said it was prepared.
“We are ready and we are ready for it to be over and done,” city police chief Manny Morales said.
“There is no reason to fear. We are prepared. We have experience in handling large demonstrations. This is the city of Miami.”
Mr Morales said the city had issued no protest permits.
“We know there is a potential of things taking a turn for the worst, but that’s not the Miami way,” he said.
Elsewhere, polling shows that Mr Trump’s legal woes have not dampened his popularity among Republican voters.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday found 81 per cent of Republicans thought the charges were politically motivated. The poll also found Mr Trump continues to lead rivals for his party’s presidential nomination by a wide margin.
Some 43 per cent of self-identified Republicans said Mr Trump was their preferred candidate, compared to 22 per cent who picked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In early May, Mr Trump led Mr DeSantis 49 per cent to 19 per cent, but that was before Mr DeSantis formally entered the race.
Mr Trump spoke to an enthusiastic crowd in Georgia over the weekend and his campaign said he would make a statement on Tuesday night, when he returns to New Jersey.
Special Counsel Jack Smith accuses Mr 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 in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate, 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 strewn across a storage-room floor.
The indictment alleges Mr Trump lied to officials who tried to get them back.
Mr Trump is the first former or current US president to face criminal charges, but legal experts say that does not prevent him from running for president – or taking office even if he is found guilty.
Any federal trial in Florida is unlikely until after the November 2024 presidential election. Mr Trump also is due to go on trial in March 2024 in his New York case.
Mr Trump accuses Democratic President Joe Biden of orchestrating the federal case to undermine his campaign. President Biden has kept his distance from the case and declines to comment on it.
-with AAP
