Fox News briefly misidentified a female top aide to former President Trump as his motorcade arrived at a Miami courthouse Tuesday to be arraigned on federal charges stemming from his handling of classified documents.
“We have some video here we want to play out, Melania Trump arriving at the courthouse just a short time ago,” anchor John Roberts said during Fox’s live coverage of Trump’s arraignment.
The network simultaneously ran a chyron reading “MELANIA TRUMP ARRIVES IN AT MIAMI COURT.”
The person shown in the footage was not, in fact, the former first lady, but Margo Martin, a former press aide to the president who is one of his top assistants. Melania Trump did not travel to the courthouse Tuesday.
Minutes after the network mistakenly identified Martin, Roberts issued a correction on air.
“We have to clarify something,” Roberts said. “We thought that was Melania Trump who was arriving, but apparently it was not, so apologies for that. With a day like today and so many comings and goings, it’s easy from a distance to mistake two people.”
Each of the major cable networks provided wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s Tuesday arraignment on charges that he violated the Espionage Act and put national security at risk with his handling of classified documents.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all of the 37 charges against him.