As the Trump grand jury was in secret, the trial must be in public, but in New York State, basically unique in the country, the public is unable to watch trials unless they are lucky enough to snag a courtroom seat. That should change — for all trials — before the prosecution of Donald J. Trump.
But even if the law isn’t amended, Trump and DA Alvin Bragg should jointly ask the judge to permit cameras for everything.
Long ago, New York feared that cameras would encourage grandstanding and banned them. Over time, as state after state has embraced transparency, it’s clear that the benefits, letting people see how cases are presented and proved or not, far outweigh the risks.
A coming trial, with unprecedented public interest, will be an O.J.-sized spectacle in which every interaction is run through the cable TV and Twitter hysteria mills. Cameras in court can be an antidote to such breathlessness. Both Trump boosters and Trump haters would see what actually unfolds: the banalities on which the case is built, how witnesses are examined and cross-examined, how holes are poked in the prosecution. As they do, they are less likely to embrace outlandish conspiracies and likelier to root their reactions in reality. This would be a public education as important as putting Senate hearings on C-SPAN.
From 1987 to 1997, New York State piloted cameras in the courtroom. That experiment was a great success, but it lapsed. Since then, the criminal defense bar, which fears that TV will bias proceedings against the accused, has used its clout in Albany to keep video out of court despite every chief judge for decades wanting cameras. Every year there’s a bill to allow cameras and every year it is defeated. There’s a bill this year and it should pass, in time for Trump’s trial.
Currently, cameras are only allowed for non-witness testimony portions, like opening and closing arguments, but 330 million Americans need to see all of it. Trump and Bragg should ask the judge to bring in cameras.
