Special counsel accuses Trump of trying to turn 2020 election trial into ‘media event’ with ‘carnival atmosphere’

Former President Donald Trump is seeking to turn his 2020 election fraud trial into a “media event” with a “carnival atmosphere,” according to federal prosecutors, who urged the judge overseeing the case to bar cameras from the courtroom on Monday. 

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team made the allegation to District Judge Tanya Chutkan in response to a Friday filing from the ex-president’s lawyers, who argued in support of a motion to permit audio and video recording of Trump’s Washington, DC trial. 

“The defendant’s response does not cite a single rule or case in support of his position, because there are none,” Smith’s team wrote in the four-page filing. “Instead, decrying the alleged unfairness of the unequivocal and constitutionally-sound broadcast prohibition that has governed federal criminal trials — no matter the defendant — for decades, the defendant’s response is a transparent effort to demand special treatment, try his case in the courtroom of public opinion, and turn his trial into a media event.”

“The Court should reject this attempted distraction and deny the applications,” the brief states.

Smith’s team goes on to argue that Trump, 77, “desires instead to create a carnival atmosphere from which he hopes to profit by distracting, like many fraud defendants try to do, from the charges against him.”

Federal prosecutors cited Trump’s behavior during his New York civil fraud trial – where cameras have briefly been allowed inside the courtroom – accusing him of treating the proceedings like a “political rally” in order to “provoke a public reaction.”  

“This scenario is not hypothetical. As the Court has already observed in proceedings in the defendant’s criminal trial, the defendant and his counsel will, if permitted, design their in-court statements instead to wage a public relations campaign,” Smith’s team said in the filing. “And in the defendant’s New York state civil fraud trial, the defendant recently used his testimony to condemn the case as a ‘political witch hunt,’ prompting the judge to admonish that ‘[t]his is not a political rally’.”

Trump’s trial in the case is slated for March 4, 2024, one day before the Super Tuesday presidential primary contests. His team has unsuccessfully tried to move the start date back.

The former president and 2024 Republican presidential primary frontrunner is facing four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US, obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.