Donald Trump wants a chance to play the victim to an audience at his federal election interference trial. In a blustering motion filed late Friday, his attorneys asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to allow the trial to be televised, endorsing media outlets’ requests for live audio and video coverage of the proceedings.
“As President Trump has made clear from the outset, the prosecution has repeatedly denied him his fundamental constitutional rights, including the right to prepare for trial and to present a fulsome defense,” his attorneys wrote. “The prosecution wishes to continue this travesty in darkness. President Trump calls for sunlight.”
In October, a group of media outlets filed a request for Chutkan to allow cameras in court for Trump’s trial. They argue that live coverage of the trial can help “secure public confidence in the outcome of the case.” The trial of a former president — and current GOP presidential front-runner — “presents the strongest possible circumstances for continuous public oversight of the justice system,” they added.
The Justice Department has opposed the request, saying the court should abide by long-standing rules against cameras in federal courtrooms.
Although Trump attorney John Lauro has publicly said that the case should be televised, Trump’s defense did not initially weigh in on the motion until they officially backed it on Friday.
Set to begin in March, this trial is one of four criminal proceedings against the former president. He has pleaded not guilty in all of them. He also faces an ongoing civil trial in New York.
A televised federal trial in Washington, D.C., would provide Trump with an opportunity to grandstand to an audience of millions and to paint himself once again as being unfairly persecuted by his political enemies. Whereas the judge in New York had to remind the former president that the witness stand was “not a political rally,” a televised trial would offer Trump a significant political platform, if not a legal one. That he’s hoping to argue his case in the court of public opinion is explicit in the motion filed by his lawyers:
Furthermore, 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.
It’s highly unlikely that Chutkan will be swayed by the defense’s argument. Trump has already proven himself an unruly and antagonistic defendant. In late October, Chutkan reinstated a gag order on him after he repeatedly attacked special counsel Jack Smith in social media posts and made public remarks about Mark Meadows, a potential witness. The order has been temporarily suspended while it’s being reviewed by a panel of judges.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.