With Trump everything is a dangerous show. (Photo:clarin.com)

By María Josefina Arce

Streets closed to traffic and a heavy police deployment. That was the scene in the city of Miami for the appearance in court of former U.S. President Donald Trump, accused of mishandling and withholding classified documents.
  
And with Trump, the first former president to face federal charges, everything is a dangerous spectacle. His incendiary and hateful speech during his 4-year stay in the White House and after his departure from it in 2021 has been characterized by generating controversy and inciting violence.
   
Let us not forget the situation created after losing in the 2020 presidential elections to the current tenant of the Oval Office, Joe Biden, due to his denunciations of alleged electoral fraud and the role he played in the violent assault on the Capitol to stop the certification of the Democrat's electoral triumph.
    
This time has not been different either. With his statements against judges and prosecutors, whom he described as anything from deranged to thugs, and his call to his supporters to protest, the situation became even more tense.
  
The former president, who rallied his supporters with the phrase "We need strength in our country now," pleaded not guilty at the arraignment on the 37 charges against him, including illegally retaining classified documents after his departure from the White House and obstructing their delivery.
    
Following the hearing Trump and his aide, who is also listed as a defendant in the case, were released without any conditions, as the U.S. Attorney's Office deemed them not prone to escape.
   
Trump has constantly resorted to the pretext that he is the victim of political persecution by the Democrats, of a witch hunt, a justification he has employed before other investigations for his business practices and his efforts to overturn his electoral defeat in the state of Georgia.
   
This is not the only tense moment that the former governor has generated in recent months. Last April, a heavy security operation was deployed around the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, where he was arraigned on charges linked to a $130,000 payment to an adult film actress.
   
The payment sought to silence the actress about their relationship so that it would not affect his 2016 presidential campaign.
  
In the current case, according to the Prosecutor's Office the most serious crimes charged, such as obstruction of justice and conspiracy, are punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and fines of up to 250 thousand dollars.