The prospects of Donald Trump’s two upcoming federal criminal trials being televised are not looking good. According to the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules, there is no way for it to get around the prohibition on cameras in the courtroom in time for Trump’s trials.
“We have an absolute rule,” Duke Law Professor Sara Sun Beale, the panel’s recorder, told Politico. “We have no authority to authorize exceptions to an across-the-board, straight rule.” U.S. District Judge James Dever, the head of the committee, said that the soonest it could change the rule would be 2026 or even 2027. That’s how nimble and responsive the court system is. But! The committee is establishing a subcommittee to look into the issue, which I believe is bureaucracy-speak for “If we stall long enough, will you forget about this?”
A group of congressional Democrats led by Rep. Adam Schiff has called for the trial to be televised, writing, “If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses.” It’s a faint hope that Trump fans would ever acknowledge that a trial had been fair, but it would be more likely if they could see it for themselves rather than just reading about it on Trump’s Truth Social posts.
The good news is the federal trials aren’t the only criminal charges Trump faces. His Georgia election interference and racketeering trial—which keeps getting more interesting as his co-defendants cut plea deals—will be televised.
