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Former president Donald Trump\u2019s<\/strong> lawyers are asking<\/a> the judge overseeing his federal trial on charges that he spread false allegations of election fraud and conspired to overturn the 2020 election to allow the historic court proceedings to be televised.<\/p>\n \u201cThe prosecution wishes to continue this travesty in darkness. President Trump calls for sunlight,\u201d defense attorneys John Lauro<\/strong> and Todd Blanche<\/strong> wrote in a legal filing submitted late Friday to U.S. Judge Tanya Chutkan<\/strong>, who is overseeing Trump\u2019s federal trial in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery person in America, and beyond, should have the opportunity to study this case firsthand and watch as, if there is a trial, President Trump exonerates himself of these baseless and politically motivated charges,\u201d Lauro and Blanche wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s lawyers, echoing their client\u2019s long-standing claims that his various criminal investigations and trials are part of a plot to keep him from returning to the presidency, argued that a televised trial would allow the public to see \u201cfirsthand that this case, just like others, is nothing more than a dreamt-up unconstitutional charade that should never be allowed to happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n The filing creates strange bedfellows, with Trump aligning himself with a coalition of mainstream media outlets that have been calling for a televised trial and against prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith\u2019s<\/strong> office, who have vociferously opposed it. Putting cameras in a federal courtroom would violate long-standing policy prohibiting the broadcasting of federal court proceedings, but the news organizations argue that the circumstances of Trump\u2019s trial warrant an exception.<\/p>\n In early October, citing \u201cthe unique circumstances of this case,\u201d a coalition of media outlets that included C-SPAN, CBS News, ABC News, and CNN filed a request<\/a> with Chutkan to broadcast the trial directly or as contemporaneous YouTube videos.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSince the founding of our Nation, we have never had a criminal case where securing the public\u2019s confidence will be more important than with United States v. Donald J. Trump<\/em>,\u201d the coalition\u2019s attorneys wrote. Two weeks later, NBCUniversal News Group filed<\/a> its own request. \u201cIf ever a trial were to be televised, this one should be, for the benefit of American democracy,\u201d argued<\/a> NBC\u2019s lawyers.<\/p>\n The federal prosecutors are adamantly opposed to broadcasting Trump\u2019s trial, arguing that putting cameras in the courtroom could prejudice witnesses, especially in a case that exemplifies the \u201cever-increasing acrimony in public discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a witness\u2019s image is captured on video, it is not just a fleeting image, but it exists indefinitely,\u201d assistant special counsels James Pearce<\/strong> and John Pellettieri<\/strong> wrote in the November 3 filing<\/a>. \u201cWere there an appeal and retrial, witnesses who were subjected to scrutiny and harassment on social media may be unwilling to testify again.\u201d Pearce and Pellettieri also warned that knowing the trial would be broadcast might make jurors unwilling to serve.<\/p>\n As they attempt to persuade Chutkan to make an exception, both Trump\u2019s attorneys and the coalition of news outlets are arguing\u2014for vastly different reasons\u2014that TV coverage of the trial is desirable because it will impact voters\u2019 attitudes about the 2020 election. In their Friday filing, Trump\u2019s lawyers said he wants to use the TV coverage to allow the American public to \u201chear all the evidence regarding an election that President Trump believes was rigged and stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the news outlets argued that not televising the trial could potentially sow distrust in the American legal system and further divide \u201ca polarized electorate,\u201d which \u201cincludes tens of millions of people who, according to opinion polls, still believe that the 2020 election was decided by fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n The trial is set to begin in March 2024, one day before the all-important Super Tuesday primary elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n