Federal prosecutors object to Trump’s request to broadcast the election process
Federal prosecutors accused former President Donald J. Trump on Monday of trying to commute his trial on charges of conspiring to turn the 2020 election into “a media event” with a “carnival atmosphere” by supporting the call to have it broadcast live on television.
Even though federal criminal procedure rules prohibit televised trials, Trump’s lawyers last week asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the election subversion case, to grant news organizations’ requests to broadcast the proceedings.
Mr. Trump’s filing contained few legal arguments and was instead based on several dubious claims that he was treated unfairly in the case and that only the transparency of a televised trial could cure the alleged injustices he suffered.
But prosecutors from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office fired back Monday, reminding Judge Chutkan that she had already promised to treat Mr. Trump like any other criminal defendant. Prosecutors added that despite the former president’s references to “fairness,” he was actually trying to create a circus-like environment “which he hopes to take advantage of by, as many fraud defendants try to do, distract from the charges against it.’
“The defendant’s response is a transparent attempt to demand special treatment, try his case in the courtroom of public opinion and turn his trial into a media event,” prosecutors wrote.
Several media organizations had first raised the issue of televising the trial, which is expected to begin in March in Federal District Court in Washington.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers initially told the administration that they did not plan to take a position either way on whether the federal proceedings should be broadcast, but they changed their minds and filed one of their most aggressive files so far.
The administration’s response to Mr. Trump, written by James I. Pearce, an assistant special counsel, was equally strong. It accused the former president and his lawyers of preparing court filings “for the purpose of gathering media attention rather than legitimate relief” and using their statements in court “to wage a public relations campaign.”
Mr. Pearce pointed in particular to Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, where he used his recent time on the witness stand to condemn the case as a “political witch hunt,” prompting the judge, as Mr. Pearce remarked, only to snap back: “This is not a political meeting.”
In all four criminal trials Trump has faced, he has chosen to pursue a strategy that creates noisy conflict to obscure the legal issues at play, and has consistently used the procedure to reinforce the message of victimhood and disaffection that underlies it. to reinforce. heart of his re-election campaign.
His brutal attacks on the judges, court staff and prosecutors involved in the cases – in Washington, DC; New York; Georgia; and Florida – have resulted in him being served two separate gag orders. And Mr. Trump has promised that, if re-elected, he will use the criminal justice system as a weapon of retaliation against his enemies.
Mr Pearce warned Judge Chutkan that granting Mr Trump the “spectacle” of a televised trial would put him “outside the rules and above the law” and allow him to further the people involved in the case to intimidate.
“If the defendant was seeking sunlight, as he claims, he should welcome the opportunity to test the government at trial,” Mr. Pearce wrote. “Instead, his response to the requests shows that he will continue to try to avoid having to answer for his criminal conduct in court, while at the same time making a public grandstanding.”