Despite serious legal threat, Trump turns day in court into a campaign event

Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune.UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal gestures towards former President Donald Trump as he visits Versailles restaurant on June 13, 2023, in Miami.

After leaving the courthouse, his motorcade ferried him to an iconic Cuban restaurant in Miami, where he bowed his head with two pastors and a rabbi for a moment of prayer, shook hands with supporters and and even managed to crack some smiles and jokes as he posed for photos, including one with UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal.

The whirling drama surrounding Trump overshadowed most other news Tuesday. His GOP presidential rivals largely refrained from any campaign events of their own. One Republican competitor, Vivek Ramaswamy, sought to capitalize on the spectacle by showing up outside the courthouse to tell reporters that he was encouraging other 2024 candidates to commit to pardoning Trump if elected to the White House.

The two public appearances by Smith in under a week suggest he’s likely to be a central protagonist in the historic saga of his investigation.There was less visibility in the proceedings in Miami federal court than there had been in New York, where Trump appeared in state court and pleaded not guilty to charges related to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

That could be a problem for Trump, who is not known to hold back or refrain from talking about sensitive subjects and is facing charges in the documents case because prosecutors say he defied orders from a court.

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