It is more than understandable why special prosecutor Jack Smith does not want his upcoming federal election interference trial against Donald Trump televised. Smith's team argues, correctly, that streaming footage of the federal proceedings would create a "carnival atmosphere" featuring Trump grandstanding "like many fraud defendants try to do." Instead, they are asking U.S District Judge Tanya Chutkan to deny requests made by more than a dozen news outlets to break federal protocol and stream footage from the trial, which is scheduled for March.
The urgency around this matter increased this week when Trump's team filed a motion supporting the request for a televised proceeding. Having previously avoided the question of cameras in court, recently Trump has been out on the stump saying he wants "this trial to be seen by everyone in the world," claiming, "I want sunlight." Giving a defendant what he wants surely wouldn't be good for the prosecution, right?
