Donald Trump’s crusade to televise his election interference trial is being greatly aided by an unprecedented case involving the Victoria’s Secret underwear chain, a federal prosecutor said.
Last month, a coalition of television networks fighting to televise Trump’s election debates cited the Victoria’s Secret issue in their petition to allow cameras into the trial in Washington, D. C. , which begins March 4.
In the 1996 case of Katzman v. Victoria’s Secret Catalogue, Court TV won the right to televise a federal class action taken by women who claimed that Victoria’s Secret offered better deals to richer men buying lingerie for their partners than they did to Victoria’s Secret female clients.
The case was led by Denise Katzman, a Manhattan resident, who claimed that a catalog sent to her had a small reduction, while the same catalog sent to her lawyer had a reduction worth an additional $15. The case garnered national media attention as a factor in gender discrimination, and Katzman appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and on the cover of USA Today, the UPI news company reported at the time.
Court TV won the case as a federal court accepted that TV cameras were much smaller and quieter than they had been at the time of the 1965 Supreme Court case of Estes v. Texas, which established that public access to courts doesn’t include the right to televise proceedings.
The former president was indicted on four counts in August for allegedly running to overturn the effects of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U. S. Capitol. defrauding the U. S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
This is one of four criminal cases Trump faces as he campaigns to regain the White House in 2024. He has also pleaded guilty to the charges in the other cases.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s lawyer on Tuesday for comment.
Federal courts generally don’t allow television cameras in very rare cases, but Trump and media groups have argued before the court that the public interest is compelling in the issue.
The chief prosecutor in the case, Jack Smith, strongly opposes having cameras at the trial, and on Monday he accused Trump of trying to create a media “carnival” in the federal courtroom.
Federal attorney Colleen Kerwick told Newsweek that, as in the Victoria’s Secret case, the Trump trial is of public interest.
“The First Amendment of the United States Constitution authorizes trials to be open to the press and the public, in the absence of compelling and obviously articulated reasons justifying the termination of such proceedings,” he said. “The federal court in Katzman v. Victoria’s Secret Catalog extended this measure to allow a case to be televised in the public interest. It is also in the public interest to know whether Trump conspired to borrow the 2020 election from Biden, especially when many Trump supporters “They have been shouting that it is just the opposite. “
Kerwick said televising Trump’s trial “can only advance the interests of justice, the public understanding of the justice system, and maintain the peak of public trust that we all have in the justice system. “
In October, Charles D. Tobin and Leita Walker, two lawyers representing a coalition of media companies that want television cameras in Trump’s trial, cited the Victoria’s Secret case in a written petition to Thomas Byron III, secretary of the Rules of Practice Committee. and proceedings for the federal courts in Washington, D. C.
The petition says the court in the Victoria’s Secret case found that television sets in 1996 “were no more distracting in appearance than journalists with notebooks or artists with sketchbooks,” and that cameras have become even more discreet since then.
“Now, the media will typically use a single, stationary pool camera, which produces no noise and requires no lighting other than existing courtroom lighting, and can be operated remotely if necessary. Often cameras are mounted near the ceiling and trial participants do not even know they are there (or they soon forget),” the petition states, adding that “microphones affixed to tables can be as small as the erasers found on the ends of pencils.”
On Monday, Smith wrote in a legal brief that Trump sought television cameras at the trial so he could create “a carnival-like atmosphere that he hopes to take advantage of by diverting attention, as many fraud defendants seek to do, away from fees. “opposite to him. “
Sean O’Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. He has covered human rights and extremism extensively. Sean joined Newsweek in 2023 and previously worked for The Guardian, The New York Times, BBC, Vice and others from the Middle East. He specialized in human rights issues in the Arabian Gulf and conducted a three-month investigation into labor rights abuses for The New York Times. He was previously based in New York for 10 years. He is a graduate of Dublin City University and is a qualified New York attorney and Irish solicitor.
You can reach Sean by emailing s. odriscoll@newsweek. com. Languages: English and French.