Video recordings and photos are prohibited inside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami, but that’s done nothing to quell public discourse around Donald Trump becoming the first former U.S. president to face federal criminal charges.

Opinions across the country tend to toe party lines. That appears to be primarily true in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, too, where leftist voters are eager to go after a man they have for years claimed to be a criminal, while those who strike a more conservative chord are skeptical of the legitimacy of the 37 charges levied against Trump related to classified documents he had taken to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after leaving office.

Divided by party lines

Democratic voter Genevieve Fraser, of Orange, expressed concerns about the impartiality of Judge Aileen Cannon “because she’s part of the Trump fanbase.” Cannon was appointed by Trump in 2018 during his presidency.

“And she should not be allowed anywhere near this case,” Fraser opined. “This is one of the most profoundly egregious indictments of any American citizen, for a man to have reached the height of office as Trump did, and to spend his [time] monetizing the presidency in every conceivable way.”

The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman — not Cannon, who was randomly assigned Trump’s case — will handle the former president’s arraignment and bond matters. However, Cannon will still remain on the historic case as the lead judge.

Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, one count of false statements and representations, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document, one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, and one count of engaging in a scheme to conceal.

Fraser, however, said she feels these charges are “just the tip of the iceberg.”

“I cannot imagine a more heinous act of treason,” she said.

A grand jury voted a few months ago to indict Trump on 34 counts of business fraud related to an alleged hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.

Mitchell Grosky, a former member of the Athol School Committee and Selectboard and an active Democrat, was stunned at the seriousness of the most recent charges.

“Not just that he left the White House with those [documents], but that he refused to give them up, even when they were subpoenaed,” he said.

Trump refused to hand over the classified documents to both the FBI and the National Archives. The indictment alleges Trump also knowingly showed top-secret documents to people who were not cleared to see them.

Grosky is also concerned with the indictment’s details. In particular, he cited how the materials had been stored, that some pertained to nuclear secrets, and had been discussed openly. Grosky said he feels the indictment is satisfactory and he is confident Trump will receive a fair trial.

But David Lewis, chairman of the Greenfield Republican Town Committee, said he wants to know if the grand jurors who indicted Trump were allowed to see or review any of the classified documents, as they likely do not have clearance to do so. He said he plans to follow the case in the media but it is difficult to say if the charges are legitimate.

“Most of us are kind of upset about it. I think [the case has] gotten overblown and I’m just going to wait and see,” he said, adding that he acknowledges the charges are serious and that he will accept the results of a fair trial.

Lewis said he wonders, however, why so few people are investigating the Biden family’s alleged crimes.

“They’re zeroing in on [Trump] because they don’t like him,” Lewis said.

Ann Reed, a libertarian from Orange who voted for Trump in 2016, said she does not approve of illegal activity but has difficulty taking commercial media seriously.

“High drama has been the order of the politics for the past few years and I’ve just observed that former President Trump has been so relentlessly targeted, irrationally targeted, from the moment he stepped into office in 2016,” Reed said. “I would feel as unhappy as if it was a Democrat being targeted.”

Reed also said she is not confident there is enough evidence against Trump.

“I would not condone wrongdoing, by any stretch of the imagination,” she said, “but I’m not convinced that he is guilty of any of this.”

Legal experts weigh in

For a former president to be indicted on criminal charges — let alone one who is also seen as a candidate for an upcoming election — is unprecedented in U.S. legal history. Paul Collins, a professor of legal studies and political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said it was hard to tell what kind of precedent this case would set, given the unique circumstances behind the charges.

“I find it pretty hard to believe that another president would get themselves into this situation, where they’re repeatedly refusing to cooperate with the archives and they seem to be scheming with attorneys to commit a pretty serious offense,” Collins said. “I don’t really know how important this case will be.”

Although prosecutors, led by special counsel Jack Smith, have indicated they are hoping for a speedy trial, Trump’s legal team will try to delay the process by any means necessary, area legal experts said.

“As a defendant, Donald Trump has no obligation to present any evidence whatsoever,” said Jennifer Taub, a professor of law at Western New England University. “Given what’s laid out in the indictment, his lawyers will first seek to get the indictment dismissed, or at least some of its charges dismissed. Then, they will try to get as much of the evidence excluded from trial as possible.”

Collins agreed that Trump would try to delay the trial. He said that 70 days is seen as a typical timeline for a fast trial, and Trump could try to challenge information from the indictment that originated from one of his own attorneys, through what is known as a “crime-fraud exception,” which prosecutors can use to skirt attorney-client privilege to get information.

“So far, it looks like those notes were obtained within the full letter of the law,” Collins said, “but this is certainly going to be a major challenge that Trump’s defense team will mount.”

A common response to the indictment has been for people to ask why charges haven’t been taken out against President Joe Biden or former Vice President Mike Pence when they were found to have taken classified materials, which Grosky refers to as “what about-ism.” These analogies are often inaccurate, he said.

“It’s sad that this drives a further wedge and it’s important to find every possible way to come together,” he said.

Grosky said he’s eager for the country to return to a point where people could be on opposite sides of an issue, but remove personalities when debating issues and show respect to one another. He stressed the need to avoid the negative, such as resorting to name-calling to those that express a different point of view. He said a central creed of the United States is that everyone is created equal, and there are enough problems facing the country that require people to work together.

“It’s totally inappropriate,” Grosky said. “It’s not what our country is about and it’s not what makes our country great.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120. Max Bowen can be reached at mbowen@recorder.com or 413-930-4074. Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

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