Federal prosecutors on Monday accused former President Donald J. Trump of trying to turn his trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election into “a media event” with a “carnival atmosphere” by backing calls to have it broadcast live on television.
Even though federal rules of criminal procedure forbid televising trials, Mr. Trump’s lawyers last week asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the election subversion case, to agree to requests from news organizations to broadcast the proceedings.
Mr. Trump’s filing was short on legal arguments and relied instead on several dubious claims that he was being treated unfairly in the case and that only the transparency of a televised trial could cure the purported wrongs he had suffered.
But firing back on Monday, prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, reminded Judge Chutkan that she had already vowed to treat Mr. Trump like any other criminal defendant.
The prosecutors added that despite the former president’s references to “fairness,” he was actually trying to create a circuslike environment “from which he hopes to profit by distracting, like many fraud defendants try to do, from the charges against him.”
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Donald J, Trump, Tanya S, Chutkan, Jack Smith, Judge Chutkan, ”
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