Donald Trump's previous legal team informed a New York judge on Monday that they are opposed to media outlets' request to broadcast Trump's arraignment on Tuesday.
“We submit that the media request should be denied because it will create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment, raise unique security concerns, and is inconsistent with President Trump’s presumption of innocence,” the Trump team said in a letter to New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchant.
Trump's legal team wrote to acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to inform him that the rules of the court require him to consider any security issues.
As Your Honor is aware, this case raises significant security issues (including Secret Service-related concerns), and they claimed that recording or photographing the proceedings would only serve to further exacerbate these grave concerns.
Todd White, who reportedly recently joined the former president's legal team, was one of the Trump attorneys who signed the new letter, according to CNN.
In the meantime, the Manhattan District Attorney's office responded to the news organizations' request on Monday by stating that it was leaving it up to the judge to determine how to run his courtroom.
It would, however, "be a defensible exercise of the Court's discretion to exclude or restrict videography, photography, and radio coverage of the arraignment in the interest of avoiding potential prejudice to the defendant, maintaining an orderly proceeding, assuring the safety of the participants in the proceeding, or for other reasons within the Court's broad authority to manage and control these proceedings," the district attorney's office wrote.
However, the prosecutors also stated that according to current New York statutes and case law, "there does not appear to be a categorical prohibition on cameras during an arraignment."
Although the district attorney's office refrained from objecting, Merchan was informed by its counsel that a similar request for audio-video transmission of the arraignment in the tax fraud case against the Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg was made for the 2021 hearing.
The prosecution stated Monday that in response to the 2021 request, the judge "allowed a limited number of still images to be taken ahead to the opening of proceedings."
One of the media outlets asking for camera access to the arraignment on Tuesday is CNN.
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