Calls are growing for Donald Trump's criminal trials to be broadcast live, as the United States grapples with the prospect of seeing a former -- and possibly future -- president in the dock.
Lawyers and politicians are lining up to urge that cameras be allowed inside the courtroom, particularly when the one-time reality TV star faces a jury on charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
"Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings," read a letter signed Thursday by the California congressman Adam Schiff and dozens of his Democratic Party colleagues.
"If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses."
Trump has now been charged in three separate criminal cases: lying about hush-money payments to a porn star, mishandling secret documents, and trying to subvert the election.
An indictment looms in a fourth, related to a phone call to a Georgia election official in which Trump pressured the man to "find" the 11,780 votes that would reverse his defeat to Joe Biden in the southern state.
Despite extensive and detailed media coverage of Trump's alleged crimes, an overwhelming majority of Republican voters -- 74 percent -- and a third of all voters believe he has done no wrong, according to a poll by the New York Times and Sienna College.
Trump himself insists he is innocent, the victim of a "witch hunt" by an establishment desperate to silence him as he runs again for the White House.
Busting this myth and exposing the depth of his malfeasance is a prime reason to show the trial to a wide audience, said Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional law specialist.
"If the Trump trial is not televised, the public will learn about the events through the extremely biased reporting of today’s media," he wrote in The Hill.
"It will be as if there were two trials: one observed by reporters for MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times and other liberal media, the other through the prism of reporters for Fox, Newsmax and other conservative outlets.
"There will be nowhere to go to learn the objective reality of what occurred at trial."
While some state-level proceedings have been shown on US television -- OJ Simpson's nation-stopping murder trial was a ratings blockbuster -- federal trials cannot be photographed or broadcast, courtesy of rules dating to 1946.
Neal Katyal, a law professor at Georgetown University, argued in the Washington Post that it was time to update this "antiquated" edict.
"We live in a digital age, where people think visually and are accustomed to seeing things with their own eyes," he wrote.
The decision on whether to allow cameras into the courtroom will ultimately rest with the Judicial Conference -- the policy-making body of the federal court system, which is run by the nation's chief justice, John Roberts.
Alternatively, Congress could change the law.
Katyal, who was a prosecutor in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the white Minnesota police officer who killed George Floyd, a Black man, said that the broadcasting of those proceedings had helped a highly divided public to accept the guilty verdict when it came.
The same would be true of the Trump trial, Katyal maintained.
"This criminal trial is being conducted in the name of the people of the United States. It is our tax dollars at work," he wrote.
"We have a right to see it. And we have the right to ensure that rumormongers and conspiracy theorists don’t control the narrative."
The problem with putting it all on the small screen, said Christina Bellantoni, an expert in media and political journalism at the University of Southern California, is Trump's formidable ability to dominate the discourse and bend the narrative.
"My prediction... would be that his public opinion ratings would go up, no matter what evidence is presented," she told AFP.
The risk is that a trial about an alleged attempt to overthrow democracy becomes little more than an entertainment, where no one's mind is changed.
"I think people aren't on the fence about this individual in either direction," she said.
"People will hate-watch it; people will rally and root for him. And there's not gonna be anybody that's like, 'Gee, I think I'll watch this and see how justice plays out.'"
© 2023 AFP
17 Comments
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TaiwanIsNotChina
It would be a public service to see that loser forced to sit there without speaking for once.
Desert Tortoise
Putting it on live TV would create another zoo like the OJ Simpson trial. However I think covering it live on radio and live streaming the audio on the internet would be very wise.
Yrral
Showing Trump in handcuffs, would of being the greatest civics lesson in the history of America
dagon
With that insincere preface, having a compromised Trump apologist like Dershowitz stating this is a strong sign Trump definitely wants televised trials.
Probably thinks he can be a meme-engineered social phenomena like Johnny Depp at his televised trial and dominate the proceedings and command the 2024 media feed leading up to the election.
lincolnman
Well, that's until we see all the private e-mails from all the Fox talking heads showing how much they lie while on-air... You know, like we saw before;
1) They "hate him (Trump) passionately"...
2)Trump's fraud claims were "complete BS", "really crazy stuff", and "mind-blowingly nuts"...
3) "Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani],"
Of course, they then went on the air and said the complete opposite - showing again MAGA-world is where the REAL fraud and grift is...
1glenn
Trials are not normally televised, although I would love to watch it. At some point the Trump scam has to stop.
Jimizo
He’s very good at playing the media. That’s his main skill.
He can also be funny although part of why it’s funny is that his behaviour is so childish and trashy and unusual for someone in his position.
A lot of it was ‘The president/former president of the US said what?’
lincolnman
It needs to be televised so people can see the real Donald Trump...
The guy that rants, screams, and lies on TV and social media where he knows he can say anything...
Suddenly changes into a little mouse when before a judge and under oath...
I can't wait to see Giuliani on the stand trying to explain all his "it was rigged" speeches when he said under oath that "this is not a fraud case", admitted in court that his charges of fraud in Georgia were "false", and told the Arizona Repub Speaker that "we just don't have any evidence"...
Televise it so we can see Trump frog-marched out to jail when he loses...a fitting end to the MAGA-delusion...
opheliajadefeldt
Trump's only successful business has been in in scamming people, he has failed in every thing else. If this trial were to be televised he would make $millions from it.
itsonlyrocknroll
For the sanctity, the respect and confidence that the US election system portrays the image with every passing day, the contrariness that no amount of exposure to Donald Trump could ever quite normalize,
Trump in jail, campaigning from a prison cell would be politically unthinkable
You can see the poo storm arriving from space.
Donald Trumps self righteous virtue, a victim of political persecution, in O'er the Land of the free and the home of the brave, at the hands of a radial socialist left wing extremist government unable to fight an US 2024/25 election in a open and honest, face to face, the politically incendiary social media firework display that will inevitably follow.
And then to frame the entire grotesque spectacle to a potential televised show trail is beyond insane lunacy.
itsonlyrocknroll
If I was able to cast a vote in the 2024 US elections i was put my cross next to Biden, I would do so because of Bidens unwavering support for the people of Ukraine.
Biden laid US economy on the line.
Action speak louder than words. That cannot be said for EU France and Germany.
Ukraine has been devastated by atrocities and war.
Donald Trump could and I believe would have attempted to negotiate, with a tyrant dictator aided by his faceless henchman pulling the strings.
To jail Donald Trump is a fools emend.
The midterm elections proved that polls are not cast in stone.
Biden needs to stand toe to toe with Trump at the ballot box.
Have the confidence to stand by your convictions, not the courts.
Trump will come back stronger
The US democracy is bomb proof, constitution was never at risk.
If Trump is convicted pardon him, blindside, insist never being afraid of a political ballot box duel,
Win hearts and minds first.
falseflagsteve
Nice bit of bread and circuses for the masses, you see.
FizzBit
See what the MSM did there? Saying we’re all too dumb to recognize a kangaroo court so it’s either a lesson on the power of their authoritarianism or entertainment. The red pill fell off the table.
Invalid CSRF
bass4funk
That’s a very good trait because the MSM try so hard and play him, at the man can play their game
No, but being a real estate, casino mogul is.
That’s why his popularity continues to go, the man shows emotion and human traits, not to mention he doesn’t take crap from his enemies or the political elite, and that is very refreshing to see for once.
To the haters perhaps…
Bad Haircut
The political establishment are dead scared of Trump, for all his faults, and everything they do is strengthening his resolve and that of his supporters. So now they want to resort to a televised trial? LOL. That'll polarise the population even more, highlight the establishment even more for the sore losers they are, and will very lkely backfire on them.
Remember, the putrid state of the establishment is why Trump's presidency was even possible the first time around. These people don't know when to pull their collective heads in and clean up their own act.