The trial should not be televised … Focus on the revolution

Some folks have been calling for the Trump trials to be televised live, but not only don’t I think that will happen, I believe it’s for good reason.

The argument used to advocate for cameras in the courtroom is that people have a right to know what happens during the trial. And we do. But that doesn’t mean we have a right to watch the trial live on television. As with most federal trials, there will be full transparency: members of the public will be permitted in the courtroom, there will be comprehensive media coverage, and verbatim transcripts will be prepared and released.

This makes sense and is appropriate.

Because the bottom line is that the primary purpose of a criminal trial is to determine a defendant’s guilt or innocence through due process. Broadcasting the trial to an international audience does nothing to advance that purpose. And it can often thwart it, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the defendant to receive a fair trial.

The public does have an interest in transparency and knowing what is happening in a trial, but the public’s interest does not outweigh the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

The courts address the public’s right to know by making the proceedings open – as I noted, members of the public can attend, space allowing, the media reports to the broader public, and full verbatim transcripts are available. But the public doesn’t need to see the expressions on everyone’s face (which they wouldn’t see anyway with a camera in the courtroom and they likely would never even see Trump since the camera would likely be stationery and trained only on the witness box) or follow every objection and bench conference in order to know what’s happening in the trial.

Some, of course, will argue that this isn’t like any other trial and Trump.isn’t like any other defendant. This is true. But the fact that this case may be different doesn’t mean that due process should be thrown out the window because the case is bigger than normal or the public has a greater interest in this trial than it does for other court proceedings.

It’s interesting that whenever they think Trump isn’t being treated exactly as every other defendant is treated, people complain about how wrong it is for the rules not to apply to him and insist that he be treated just the same as everyone else. And yet, when it suits them, they want the federal courts to make a huge exception, turn the rules and law on their heads, and treat Trump very differently than everyone else.

Can’t have it both ways.

I think it’s highly unlikely that the federal courts will make an exception and allow any of Trump’s federal trials to be televised. And I don’t think it’s a good use of time to fret over it or to expend energy trying to get the courts to change their policy, since the courts aren’t going to revise federal rules in response to a letter writing campaign.

And frankly, even in they did, as a former trial lawyer, I can say with confidence, that most of the people who are pushing the hardest to get cameras in the courtroom would be the most disappointed by what they end up seeing, since federal criminal trials don’t look or sound anything like Law and Order.

I continue to urge everyone here to focus their energies on turning out the vote to ensure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get the 270+ electoral votes they need to win a second term and keep Trump from ever getting near the levers of presidential power again.