Donald Trump arrives in Miami for federal court appearance

Donald Trump has arrived in Miami as he prepares to become the first former US president in history to face federal criminal charges in court. Accused of wilfully retaining classified documents containing national security secrets, including details of nuclear programmes, Trump faces a potential sentence of decades behind bars if convicted. The sudden departure of two lawyers who had been working on the case led to a last-minute scramble to find defence attorneys registered with the Southern District of Florida Bar as required by the court, it was reported last night. Trump’s extremely aggressive personal attacks on Jack Smith, the special counsel who compiled the 37 criminal charges, combined with the former president’s long history of run-ins with his own lawyers, were complicating the last-minute recruitment attempted, the Washington Post reported. Trump will go before the US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a public servant he appointed himself, who was criticised for her handling of his civil case earlier this year, which challenged the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago and the seizure of the documents now at the centre of the charges. Read the best of our journalism: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=timesonlinevideo Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timesandsundaytimes/ Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetimes Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetimes/