RATINGS HOUND: Trump now claims he wants his DC trial televised
The public wants to see Donald Trump on trial, and major media organizations are ready to give them access.
Televising a trial can have the effect of giving the public informed access, or it can have the effect of turning it into a performance for viewers, rather than a justice-focused legal proceeding.
A number of media entities owning publications such as The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, CSPAN, and others, have filed an application requesting access to record and broadcast the trial taking place in D.C. in March 2024 before Judge Tanya Chutkan — and Trump is backing their plan.
Trump was given until November 10th to respond, and on the day of the deadline, his attorney team filed a document not only supporting the motion to televise his trial for attacks on the 2020 election, but demanding it.
In Trump’s filing, his legal team decries the proceedings as “meritless” and accuses the prosecution (which Trump has also accused of leaking to the press) of attempting to “proceed in secret.”
The filing reiterates his claims that the charges were brought for purely political reasons and that the former president has been terribly mistreated. The filing concludes:
“In sum, [former] President Trump absolutely agrees, and in fact demands, that these proceedings should be fully televised so that the American public can see firsthand that this case, just like others, is nothing more than a dreamt-up unconstitutional charade that should never be allowed to happen again. Furthermore, [former] President Trump is entitled to present his positions in this case to the American public, including his sacred obligation as President to investigate and address fraud and other irregularities in the 2020 Presidential Election.”
The filing does not offer any evidence to support the suggestion that Trump made efforts to “investigate and address fraud” in 2020, though the government has presented evidence publicly that he, in fact, attempted to falsely claim there had been fraud.
The government had filed its opposition to the motion a week before, pointing out some of the potential negative impacts. According to their response:
“[W]itnesses and others who appear on video may be subjected to threats and harassment. Were there an appeal and retrial, witnesses who were subjected to scrutiny and harassment on social media may be unwilling to testify again…Jurors who are seated may feel intimidated, even if efforts are made to conceal their faces. And knowing that a trial is being broadcast can lead to participants grandstanding for the cameras.”
Trump has already demonstrated a propensity for attacking courts, witnesses, and even jurors, and has been fined twice in a separate case for continuing to make public attacks on a judge’s clerk after being ordered not to do so.
