NBCUniversal individually filed a request to televise former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy trial, writing in its Oct. 11 application, “If ever a trial were to be televised, this one should be.”
The application was filed by NBCU’s legal team less than a week after a coalition of media outlets including ABC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, and others requested video and audio access to the courtroom.
Trump’s election conspiracy trial is set to start in March 2024 and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan will preside over the unprecedented case.
No video access had been provided in any pre-trial proceedings. A media room and overflow courtroom with a video feed has been opened, but the press is not permitted to video record any of the proceedings.
The NBCU request asks the court to allow video and audio coverage of Trump’s trial “either by a pool camera shared by NBCU News Group and other organizations or through the Court’s own equipment.”
“The American public has an extraordinary interest in seeing and hearing this trial of former President Trump,” argued the filing.
“Civil and criminal proceedings have been televised routinely for decades pursuant to rules in many state courts, with no prejudice to any party of to the administration of justice,” it continued. “If ever a trial were to be televised, this one should be, for the benefit of American democracy.”
The news organization argued that “vital public interests in democratic institutions and the freedom of speech are at the core of this application.”
“NBCU News Group and the public have a paramount interest in broadcast (and the public a paramount interest in witnessing) this trial of a former President,” the filing read. “No compelling interest… supports a ban on video and audio coverage of federal criminal trials.”
In the coalition’s request from Oct. 5, attorneys wrote in the petition that “the prosecution of a former president, now a presidential contender, on charges of subverting the electoral process presents the strongest possible circumstances for continuous public oversight of the justice system.”
They added: “That oversight, rooted in decades of First Amendment precedent and sound judicial policy, will be functionally illusory without audiovisual access to these proceedings.”
Among the options the news agencies are requesting is livestreaming the trial on YouTube.
Deadline first reported this story.
