NBC Asks Judge to Exempt Trump Immunity Hearings From Camera Ban

NBC News asked a Washington federal judge to allow live broadcasting of court hearings on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for election obstruction.

Arguments about whether Trump is shielded from charges that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election “may be some of the most important arguments ever made before any United States court,” NBCUniversal News Group said in a Monday night filing.

Longstanding federal court rules prohibit the broadcasting of criminal cases. Still, the American public has “an extraordinary interest” in watching these proceedings, and without authorization to broadcast them, only a limited number of people allowed into the courtroom in-person could be able to watch them, NBC News said.

Limiting access to these hearings “would do a deep disservice to the public and permanent injury to the historical record,” the network said.

Judge Tanya Chutkan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia is considering which allegations against Trump, if any, can stand after the US Supreme Court held that presidents can’t be prosecuted for conduct done in their official capacity.

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a revised indictment in August paring back some of the charges against Trump, and has since argued that Trump should stand trial for his “private crimes.” Trump’s response, arguing why he should be immune from prosecution, is due later in November, after the presidential election.

A person close to the Trump team said his lawyers support fully televising all proceedings and the trial itself.

NBC, along with a coalition of media organizations that included C-SPAN, CNN, and the New York Times, had asked Chutkan last year for permission to broadcast Trump’s future criminal trial, and the judge had yet to rule on those requests. Trump’s legal team supported the earlier requests to televise the trial. The federal government opposed the requests.

It is “even clearer” that Chutkan should permit audiovisual broadcasting of hearings exploring the immunity question ahead of trial, NBC argued.

“The issues involved in Mr. Trump’s claimed immunity go to the structure of American democracy and the conduct of American elected officials, and will no doubt provoke years of debate among politicians, journalists, and ordinary Americans of every political outlook,” NBC said.

The network also noted that factors that may have weighed against allowing his trial to be broadcast—such as the effect on witnesses or jurors—would not apply to hearings with lawyers debating Trump’s immunity.

The Judicial Conference, the judiciary’s policymaking body, has also fielded requests to carve out an exception to the broadcasting ban for Trump’s criminal trials in federal court, and a subcommittee was created last year to study the issue.

However, that panel decided earlier this month to recommend against making changes to the ban. Judiciary officials have previously said that the process to change the rule would take years regardless, well past Trump’s criminal proceedings.

The case is Media Application for Audiovisual Access to Trial Proceedings in USA v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 1:23-mc-00099, 10/28/24