Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and more than three dozen House Democrats — including many from the former House January 6th Select Committee — sent a letter to the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s case in Washington, D.C. asking for a favor.
Please broadcast the proceedings on live television, Schiff and the Democratic leaders asked in a letter to Judge Roslynn Mauskopf on Thursday.
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“It is imperative” that the court proceedings in Trump’s case be shown on television “given the extraordinary national importance to our democratic institutions and the need for transparency,” the letter read.
The letter was sent the same day that Trump was arraigned in federal courts on charges of an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The initial court proceedings inside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., were not televised or live-streamed.
The former president, who has a comfortable lead in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has repeatedly blasted the deluge of criminal cases against him as politically motivated and election interference. Trump has been arrested and charged three times in the past six months on various charges in New York, Florida, and now Washington, D.C.
A fourth indictment in Fulton County, Georgia is expected to come in the next few weeks.
“CRAZY! My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including D.A., A.G., and others, which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate. Resources that would have gone into Ads and Rallies, will now have to be spent fighting these Radical Left Thugs in numerous courts throughout the Country. I am leading in all Polls, including against Crooked Joe, but this is not a level playing field. It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede. MAGA!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social app on Friday.
Trump’s next hearing in the case is set for Aug. 28 in the case.
A formal trial date has not been set.
The Schiff-led letter to the federal judge in Washington, D.C. read as follows —
Dear Judge Mauskopf:
We are writing to request the Judicial Conference explicitly authorize the broadcasting of court proceedings in the cases of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump. It is imperative the Conference ensures timely access to accurate and reliable information surrounding these cases and all of their proceedings, given the extraordinary national importance to our democratic institutions and the need for transparency.
As the policymaking body for the federal courts, the Judicial Conference has historically supported increased transparency and public access to the courts’ activities. Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings. 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.We urge the conference to take additional steps, including live broadcasting, to ensure the facts of this case are brought forward, unfiltered, to the public.
The Horn editorial team