Former President Donald Trump is seeking to turn his 2020 election fraud trial into a “media event” with a “carnival atmosphere,” according to federal prosecutors, who urged the judge overseeing the case to keep cameras out of the courtroom on Monday.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team made the allegations to District Judge Tanya Chutkan in response to a Friday filing from the former president’s attorney, who argued in support of a motion to allow audio and video recordings of Trump’s trial in Washington, DC.
“Defendant’s response does not cite a single rule or case supporting its position, because there is none,” Smith’s team wrote in a four-page filing. “Instead, denouncing the alleged unfairness of the clear and constitutionally sound broadcast ban that has governed federal criminal trials — regardless of the defendant — for decades, the defendant’s response is a transparent effort to demand special treatment, the trial of his case in the courtroom. public opinion, and turned his trial into a media event.”
Trump’s legal team supports allowing cameras in the courtroom for his federal trial on charges that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. REUTERS Federal prosecutors, led by special counsel Jack Smith, argued against allowing cameras in court on Monday. AFP via Getty Images
“The court should reject this attempted interference and deny the application,” the brief said.
Smith’s team went on to argue that Trump, 77, “instead wants to create a carnival atmosphere that he hopes to profit from by diverting attention, as the fraud defendants are trying to do, from the charges against him.”
Federal prosecutors cited Trump’s behavior during his civil fraud trial in New York – where cameras were briefly allowed in the courtroom – accusing him of treating the proceedings like a “political rally” to “spark a public reaction.”
Trump faces four felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the US, obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings and conspiracy against rights.AP
“This scenario is not hypothetical. As the Court has already observed in the proceedings in the defendant’s criminal trial, the defendant and his attorney will, if permitted, design their in-court statements to launch a public relations campaign,” Smith’s team said in the filing. “And in the defendant’s New York state civil fraud trial, the defendant recently used his testimony to condemn the case as a ‘political witch hunt,’ prompting the judge to admonish that ‘[t]he is not a political rally’.”
Trump’s trial in the case is scheduled for March 4, 2024, the day before the Super Tuesday presidential primary contest. His team unsuccessfully tried to move the start date back.
The former president and 2024 Republican presidential front-runner faces four felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the US, obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings and conspiracy against rights.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
