Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared before a federal magistrate in Miami over charges that he willfully retained classified documents after leaving office as U.S. president. 

Peoples Gazette reported Monday how Mr Trump, 76, was charged with seven count offences under the U.S. Espionage Act, including unauthorised retention of confidential information.

It is Mr Trump’s second indictment and the first federal indictment of a former president in American history.

At the resumption of his trial, the former president pleaded not guilty of all 37 counts charges before Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, the Voice of America VOA reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. government is looking into how Mr Trump handled sensitive information after the FBI executed a search warrant in 2022, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Each of the 31 counts of “willful retention” of classified national defence information represents a different document that he took from the White House and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Willful retention is deliberately keeping and refusing to turn over documents.

The other six charges against Mr Trump are centred on his alleged efforts to conceal his retention of the documents after the FBI and a grand jury demanded their return.