Jack Smith criticizes Trump for TV request

Special counsel Jack Smith criticized former President Donald Trump on Monday for supporting a request to televise his 2020 election trial in Washington, DC

Smith he hit Trump in a court filing Monday to try to “turn his trial into a media event” that would distract from the charges against him. Trump supported the media’s request to televise his trial on Friday, accusing prosecutors of working to “continue this farce in the dark.”

Smith told the court that Trump is trying to “create a carnival atmosphere that he hopes to profit from by distracting, as many fraud defendants are trying to do, from the charges against him.”

“This scenario is not hypothetical,” the filing states. “As the Court has already observed in the proceedings at the defendant’s criminal trial, the defendant and his counsel will, if permitted, craft their statements in court rather than engage in a public relations campaign.”

Smith pointed to Trump’s testimony last week at his civil fraud trial in New York, where he he called the case was a “political witch hunt” and accused New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James of “political hacking.” Judge Arthur Engoron he said Trump’s lawyer at one point to “control” his client, reminding him that it was “not a political rally.”

Smith also claimed that Trump’s previous filings, including his request for Judge Tanya Chutkan to refuse herself and an effort to have the case filed on a presidential basis immunity, were designed to gain media coverage rather than legitimate court relief. This latest request to televise the trial, the filing says, is just another way for Trump to avoid “answering for his criminal conduct in the courtroom while at the same time publicly exposing the record of the Court”.

Trump’s lawyers wrote Friday that the former president was asking for “sunlight.” “Everyone in the United States, and beyond, should have the opportunity to study this case firsthand and see how, if there is a trial, President Trump exonerates himself from these baseless and unjustified charges. political reasons,” they wrote.

Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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