Donald Trump has been accused of trying to rig the election. He apparently wants to use the process for election campaign appearances.
WASHINGTON – For decades, it has been policy in the United States that hearings in federal courts should not be televised live. It has now been shaken by Donald Trump, who faces a slew of criminal and civil lawsuits. Among other things, he has been accused of trying to distort the results of the 2020 US election.
The election fraud investigation, which began in August, is one of four criminal cases involving the former US president. It will be held in federal court in Washington, DC. Negotiations are scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024.
Ahead of the actual trial, Donald Trump and his lawyers continue to submit motions. For example, they demanded that U.S. District Judge Tanya Sudkan drop the case because she was biased against Trump. On Friday (November 10), Trump’s lawyers requested permission to broadcast live from the courtroom. Guardian reported.
Donald Trump wants to overturn decades-old rules in federal court
Proceedings before these courts are generally public and anyone can attend. The same applies to the investigation against Trump.
The actual transfer ban is not mentioned in the application. Instead, it contains the usual accusations from the Trump side against the Justice Department: that the former president is the victim of harassment by the administration of Democratic incumbent Joe Biden. “The prosecution wants to continue this travesty in the dark. “President Trump demands sunshine,” it says, as flowery as the American press Politics Quoted from paper.
“Every person in the United States and beyond should have the opportunity to read this case first-hand and see President Trump exonerate himself from these baseless and politically motivated charges if he goes to trial,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. The motion ends with Trump’s compelling claim that the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen.”
Trump trial in Washington: Media calls for live coverage from courtroom
With the application, Donald Trump is implicitly supporting media outlets’ demands to be allowed to broadcast the upcoming trial live. They point to the extremely high public interest in this case and the potential problems with accommodating a trial audience in court. The competent federal court rejected this claim. A live broadcast is heard in political debate by endangering proceedings, for example by intimidating witnesses and jurors.
However, Donald Trump, who recently declared the 2024 US elections as the “ultimate battle” against the “tyrannical establishment” in Washington, does not want to support the media he hates. Instead, the 77-year-old wants to use the courtroom as a campaign platform to effectively portray himself as a victim of a corrupt justice system. A live telecast of the trial before the federal court would help avoid an injunction against him.
The live broadcast will help Trump avoid a court-imposed speech ban
On Oct. 16, a federal court issued a so-called “gag order” against Trump, barring him from speaking. Trump bans public verbal attacks on lawyers or witnesses The reason was several verbal attacks by the former president, who, among others, described Special Investigator Jack Smith as a “deranged lunatic.” The prosecution saw Trump’s other verbal attacks against potential witnesses as an attempt to intimidate.
The “gag order” was temporarily suspended but reinstated by Chief Justice Tanya Sudkan in late October. However, on the same day, Trump defied this court order and his former Attorney General, William P. attacked Barr on his social media site Truth Social, calling him “stupid, weak, slow, lazy, cowardly and lazy”. Because Barr is a potential witness in an election fraud trial, the verbal assault is a violation of the gag order.
The former president had previously violated the speech ban in two cases and had to pay a total of $15,000 in fines. After the attack on Barr, Trump faced a prison sentence, from which only Judge Sudgen spared him.
Donald Trump wants to use courtrooms to campaign
Because the current “gag order” does not apply in the courtroom itself, Trump could effectively circumvent the ban on speaking if his court appearances were broadcast live. He can approach his supporters from the courtroom and incite them with routine verbal attacks on the justice system. Trump is currently considered the most promising candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the upcoming US elections.
Trump foresaw the appearance of such a campaign in court in one of his civil actions. Trump is practically campaigning in the courtroom with expletives and insults before the New York Supreme Court, which has accused him and his children of business fraud in an ongoing court case. He portrayed himself in a New York court as the victim of a “political witch hunt” and said the judiciary was being used as a “weapon” against him.
A decision on an application to allow the trial to be broadcast live in the Federal Court is still pending. Justice Sudkan has already rejected another application which again sought to have the “gag order” lifted. (Roa)
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