Live Updates: Trump arraignment in Miami court after federal indictment

According to sources familiar with the planning, Trump is expected to be joined by lawyers Todd Blanche and Chris Kise. Meetings with local attorneys are continuing. One member of Trump's legal team downplayed Tuesday's arraignment as simply "procedural" when speaking about the upcoming court appearance. 

After meetings last night with Walt Nauta's legal team and his own lawyers, Trump will keep meeting with Florida lawyers this week as he seeks to add more seasoned criminal defense lawyers to his legal team, they added. But for now, he's leaning on Blanche, who he sees as a "killer," and Kise, who knows Florida, to help him navigate this terrain. 

Other Trump lawyers such as Lindsey Halligan and Boris Epsheytn remain involved and often central in the "fight this in the court of public opinion" area, but as this enters a new, more serious phase in federal court, sources tell me an expanding team is necessary for Trump to be on strong footing ahead of a protracted legal battle with the special counsel. 

— Robert Costa and Fin Gomez

Trump huddled with top campaign and legal advisers on Monday night at his Trump Doral hotel ahead of his court scheduled court appearance on Tuesday. Trump and his team had dinner in a private room at the hotel's BLT Prime restaurant and next to the restaurant's circular bar that had the Miami Heat vs Denver Nuggets NBA finals game playing on the TV.

Trump's advisers said his mood ahead of the court appearance can be described as "defiant and confident" over the charges he faces, and that he plans to "fight" the federal charges.

His advisers said that Trump and his team have been buoyed by recent polls, including the new CBS poll, that showed in the aftermath of Thursday's indictment news, Trump had a formidable double-digit lead over the rest of the GOP field, including Ron DeSantis.

Earlier in the day, Trump was greeted with cheers and applause by hotel patrons and supporters when he first arrived into the lobby. A larger group of Trump supporters had congregated in a parking lot across the street from the opulent Doral property. 

Pro-Trump supporters, some wearing Trump t-shirts and hats, sat at the bar and some said they were also planning on attending the courthouse protests on Tuesday. One Florida Trump supporter at the Trump Doral bar, a New York transplant who was staying at the hotel in hopes of running into the former president, said she hoped that Trump would not be convicted and imprisoned because she thought there could be a "civil war" if it were to happen.

Special counsel Jack Smith, whose office oversaw the investigation that led to the Justice Department to charge Trump, arrived in Miami on Monday night. 

Miami Police Chief Manny Morales said Monday that the city is ready for protests ranging anywhere between 5,000 to 50,000 people, and he encouraged any demonstrations to be peaceful. 

"I just want to assure the city we are ready, and we're ready for it to be over and done," Morales said.

Security for Trump's court appearance will involve multiple law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Marshals, who are responsible for securing the courthouse and federal grounds; the U.S. Secret Service, which is responsible for providing security for Trump as a former president; Miami police, who will be responsible for the streets around the federal courthouse and dealing with protesters; as well as Miami-Dade County police, who will provide added security around the courthouse, Trump National Doral, and the movement of Trump around the county; Florida Highway Patrol, to help with road closures; and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The federal charges come just a couple of months after Trump was charged by a New York grand jury in a separate case.

The Manhattan grand jury found Trump should be charged for allegedly illegally disguising payments to his "fixer" Michael Cohen, who paid adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

On April 4, he spent about an hour inside a Manhattan courtroom with his legal team and became the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty.

While both cases could involve prison time if Trump is convicted, legal analysts say the federal charges, involving sensitive government documents, appear to raise greater concerns.

"For me the difference between the two cases is huge. It's not just state versus federal, it's also the severity of the crimes, it's the amount of evidence that's been amassed," Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor and CBS News legal contributor, said.

Read more here. 

he indictment, filed by special counsel Jack Smith, lists 37 felony counts against Trump related to his handling of sensitive government documents, including some that allegedly involve "defense and weapons capabilities" and U.S. nuclear programs. A Trump aide, Walt Nauta, is also charged in the case.

The 37 counts against Trump are: 

• 31 counts of willful retention of classified documents
• 1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice
• 1 count of withholding a document or record
• 1 count of corruptly concealing a document or record
• 1 count of concealing a document in a federal investigation
• 1 count of scheme to conceal
• 1 count of making false statements and representations.

Nauta, Trump's 40-year-old former valet,  was charged with six counts:

• 1 count of conspiracy to obstruction justice
• 1 count of withholding a document or record
• 1 count of corruptly concealing a document or record
• 1 count of concealing a document in a federal investigation
• 1 count of scheme to conceal
• 1 count of making false statements or representations.

The charges against Trump involve 31 records "relating to the national defense" discovered at Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment, including White House intelligence briefings from 2018 through 2020 related to foreign countries, documents concerning military capabilities of foreign countries and the U.S., a June 2020 document involving a foreign country's nuclear capabilities, an undated record about U.S. nuclear weaponry and a document from October 2018 concerning the communications with another country's leader.

Twenty-one of these documents had a "TOP SECRET" classification marking, while nine were marked "SECRET." The final document bore no marking, according to a chart included in the indictment.

After the arraignment, Trump will head back to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he will give remarks and have a fundraiser. 

The Trump campaign has been churning out fundraising emails based off his indictment. At the Georgia GOP convention on Saturday, Trump said the indictment had driven his poll numbers up and had "driven us right through the sky" on fundraising.