NBCUniversal Seeks Video Coverage Of Donald Trump’s Election Conspiracy Case: “If Ever A Trial Were To Be Televised, This One Should Be” – Deadline
By Ted Johnson
Political Editor
NBCUniversal News Group filed its own request to televise Donald Trump‘s election conspiracy trial, citing the extraordinary circumstances of a former president facing criminal charges.
In an application filed today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., NBCU’s legal team, led by Theodore Boutrous Jr., wrote that “civil and criminal proceedings have been televised routinely for decades pursuant to rules in many state courts, with no prejudice to any party or to the administration of justice.” (Read the NBCU request).
“If ever a trial were to be televised, this one should be, for the benefit of American democracy,” they wrote.
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Federal district courts have prohibited video and audio coverage of criminal proceedings. NBCU is asking for a pool camera with limited broadcast delay, or for the court itself to provide a live feed.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has scheduled March 4 as the start date for Trump’s trial on four conspiracy counts related to his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election. But no video access has been allowed in any of the pre-trial proceedings, despite calls from some lawmakers and media groups. The court has opened up a larger media room and overflow courtroom with a video feed, but reporters are prohibited from recording the proceedings.
A media coalition of major networks and news organizations filed an application for televised proceedings earlier this month, and they also made a request to the Judicial Conference, which oversees the rules of federal courts.
But the NBCU request highlighted “different, additional considerations” than the media coalition. The network’s legal team argued that statutory interpretation, procedural rules, legal doctrine and the First Amendment “all separately require audiovisual access to the proceeding.”
“No compelling or substantial government interest supports restricting public access to a minuscule number of reporters and a handful of members of the public who can physically access the courtroom in Washington, D.C. to see and hear what happens,” the NBCU legal team wrote.
They argued that Chutkan “need only apply clear, everyday principles of statutory interpretation to determine that it already has authority to permit video and audio of these proceedings.” They noted that a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedures prohibits “broadcasting only ‘from the courtroom.’” They noted that it does not prohibit media outlets from using a pool camera, with the feed relayed to studios and then transmitted “outside the courtroom.” The rule also does not restrict Chutkan from using its own equipment to capture the proceedings that networks can then use, they wrote.
Boutrous and his team wrote that if the federal rule “were construed to impose a complete ban on creating and disseminating audiovisual content of criminal trials, that ban would, as applied to this trial, violate the First Amendment.” Among other things, they noted that the rule would be restricting public access to the appearance and demeanor of trial participants, and that it would be applying a different standard to civil proceedings, where federal courts have allowed some video access. Moreover, they wrote that the government has to overcome the First Amendment “strict scrutiny” applied to other content-based regulations.
They wrote that it serves “no compelling government interest and manifestly is not the least restrictive means to serve any interest, given the abundant alternatives for this court to manage concerns through tailored measures, as courts in most states do.”
As of now, only Trump’s Georgia criminal case looks to be televised, given the state rules that allow for it. In Florida, where Trump faces federal criminal charges related to withholding classified information, media requests for televised coverage have been rebuffed. New York state courts also have turned down media requests. The judge in Trump’s current civil fraud trial is allowing limited camera access, but only to take shots of the courtroom environment before the proceedings start.
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