former president Donald Trump left his Bedminster golf club today to appear in Miami court tomorrow for his arraignment Trump is facing 37 counts in a Federal indictment the first former president to be federally charged it's all related to his handling of classified documents after leaving office allegedly storing the information in boxes throughout his Mar-A-Lago estate including in a ballroom a bathroom and shower the charges include violating the Espionage Act making false statements and conspiring to obstruct justice but the former president is doubling down on his innocence vowing to stay in the 2024 presidential race and many of his supporters say they stand firmly behind him some will be waiting for him when he returns back to New Jersey tomorrow night for a rally here to discuss the charges and what happens next is esteemed Rutgers law professor Ronald Chen Professor Chen I think the question on a lot of folks Minds is if convicted what type of sentence could former president Trump face well these are serious charges the ones that allege a conspiracy theoretically carry a term of up to 20 years they're not misdemeanors by any means yeah well I'm curious because he was charged under the Espionage Act just how serious is that he's certainly the most high profile person to be charged criminally there and how does it apply here well it Espionage just by the sound of it is quite serious when you're dealing with our nation's secrets that can have an effect on on the safety of our Personnel overseas of our of our intelligence assets our military and those of our of our allies it is very serious which is why the penalties on this and the strictness of the of the ACT is quite intentional and there are government workers who who have done time for doing things that are less than the allegations that are in this indictment what struck you when you read this indictment it tells a story in a very accessible way that certainly does not require you to be a lawyer to understand what was going on was that done on purpose do you think because I found it very easy I am I I can't speak to it but I I would be super very surprised if it were not because Mr Smith and the other officials from the justice department I think it's important that the American public understand what is uh what is really at stake in this case a lot of the testimony comes of the evidence that is described here comes from his own lawyers that is quite unusual usually significant usually that would be protected by attorney Klein privilege but when you try to involve your own lawyers if that as is alleged here in the criminal act itself the privilege does not apply to that okay so I'm wondering then you know we've heard from some of the folks who have defended former president Trump they make this comparison between Hillary Clinton's emails the classified documents that President Biden held is that a fair comparison well of course with President Biden that's still under investigation by a separate uh special counsel but all those allegations I understand them were that documents were found but so far as we know President Biden and I believe former secretary Clinton once it was discovered they cooperated completely and they said here take them back a former vice president Pence the same thing the allegations here are that President Trump used affirmative efforts to want to lie to the Department of Justice and the FBI about whether he had the documents when a president moves out of the White House I imagine it is someone quiet chaotic it's understandable that some papers might get mixed in but usually when that happens they said sorry here take them back and that's the end of it as you recall in this case the the National Archives records Administration asked several times I know it's clear that they didn't he didn't the records back after being asked got the subpoena that caused so much excitement last September goes back to that intention of course which will be tried there esteemed Rutgers law professor Ronald Chen always good to talk to you thank you so much thanks thanks for having me [Music] [Music]