Jack Smith Opposes Having Cameras in Trump’s Federal Election Trial

(L) Special counsel Jack Smith in Washington, on Aug. 1, 2023; and (R) former U.S. President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Saul Loeb, Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images)

Special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors issued a court filing saying they oppose the televising of former President Donald Trump’s federal election trial, although a multitude of media outlets have sought for it to be streamed.

A group of media outlets asked the federal judge overseeing the case for permission to broadcast the Trump trial due to its historic nature. One of President Trump’s attorneys has also publicly backed the trial being televised for the public to see.

Federal prosecutors said that “every court to have considered the issue has concluded that there is no constitutional right to a televised trial,” according to their court filing on Nov. 3. The longstanding rule that disallows the broadcasting of federal trials was implemented to ”avoid the risks that policymakers have determined cameras pose to the fair administration of justice,” Mr. Smith’s lawyers said.

“While Applicants are free to advocate their views to policymakers, this Court should decline their invitation to ignore the binding nature” regarding that federal rule, they said.

That rule, which was first adopted in 1946, survived a series of constitutional challenges in the 1980s. The U.S. Supreme Court enshrined the public’s First Amendment right of public access to criminal trials in 1980’s Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia. Journalists thereafter argued that the federal rule barring photos and video broadcasts from inside the courtroom during federal trials was unconstitutional. Four federal appellate circuits rejected those arguments.

The news outlets, in an October request, wrote that the judge should instead allow cameras inside the courtroom, saying that because of President Trump’s high-profile status as a current 2024 candidate and former president, it’s in the public interest to see the trial play out.

The charges he faces “presents the strongest possible circumstances for continuous oversight of the justice system,” lawyers for the news outlets argued. “We have never, in the history of our Nation, had a federal criminal trial that warrants audiovisual access more than the federal prosecution of former President Trump for allegedly trying to subvert the will of the people,” the outlets added.

NBCUniversal has filed a separate petition and provided additional arguments for a live or near-live video stream of President Trump’s trial. Both NBC and the media coalition argued that nearly every state now allows televised criminal proceedings in state courts. Even federal courts, they said, permit video access to some civil and bankruptcy proceedings.

Video technology is moreover so advanced that there’s no need for intrusive cameras and lighting, the media coalition said, and thanks to smartphones, cameras have become so ubiquitous that Americans expect to see video of major events.

“The means exist today … for all Americans to exercise their constitutional right to observe trials, particularly a historic case like this one,” the coalition wrote in their court filing. “The First Amendment requires remote access through that technology.”

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig also said during a recent live segment that if the outlet doesn’t “have cameras in the courtroom, here’s what we’re gonna have ... we’re gonna have young reporters running in and out of the courtroom texting us, trying to recount what happens.”

“Two or three hours after the end of every trial, they will get a 300-page transcript that some court reporter typed up, and we’ll get sketch drawings,” he added. “It’s not 1918 here! It’s 2023. We need to get with it.”

Previously, Trump attorney John Lauro said he favors having cameras in the courtroom during the trial, slated for next March.

“The first thing we would ask for is: Let’s have cameras in the courtroom so all Americans can see what’s happening in our criminal justice system,” Mr. Lauro said during a July 21 interview with Fox News. “I would hope the Department of Justice would join in that effort so that we take the curtain away and all Americans get to see what’s happening.”

Mr. Lauro told Politico late last week that the Trump legal team will soon respond to the recent filing from federal prosecutors, saying: “We will respond with our position as required by the Court’s scheduling order.”

The federal government’s filing comes as Judge Chutkan, an Obama appointee, reinstated a gag order targeting the former president last week, prohibiting him from commenting on the special counsel or his team, potential witnesses, and court staff. She temporarily lifted the gag order last month after President Trump’s lawyers appealed, although she reversed it about a week later.

“The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech,” the former president said last week in a post on Truth Social. “NOT CONSTITUTIONAL!”

President Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he allegedly plotted to interfere unlawfully in the counting of votes in the contest against Democrat Joe Biden. He’s also been charged in three other jurisdictions with a range of felonies; the former president has pleaded not guilty to those charges, too.

Reuters contributed to this report.