The trial of former president Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election will be the most consequential in U.S. history. But because Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure bans the broadcasting of federal criminal proceedings, only a handful of Americans will be able to watch it live. That does the public a huge disservice. 

The 50,000+ individuals who have signed this petition so far are part of a solid majority of Americans, 71 percent, who believe that television cameras should be allowed into the courtroom to watch the former president's trial. 

Since this petition was launched in August, multiple news organizations have called on Judge Chutkan and the U.S. Judicial Conference to allow a video camera in her courtroom, using arguments that mirror the case made in this petition. The NBCUniversal application reads, “The American public has an extraordinary interest in seeing and hearing this trial of former President Trump.”

At a time when trust in government is near an all-time low, and nothing less than the cornerstone of our democracy is at stake—the peaceful transfer of power—it is imperative that Americans have a full and transparent view into the proceedings.

Televising the trial will demonstrate that Trump is being treated just like everyone else charged with a crime. Steven Brill, founder of Court TV, wrote that jurors consistently reported greater faith in the U.S. justice system following their time in the courtroom. Seeing is believing.

Despite the prohibition on televising federal trials, there have been exceptions. In the 1997 trial of the Oklahoma City bomber, survivors were afforded the opportunity to watch the proceedings via closed-circuit TV. The 9/11 families were similarly allowed to view the trial of alleged al-Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui.

One of the charges in U.S. v. Trump is conspiring against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted. The victims are the 81 million Americans who cast their ballots for Joe Biden. These victims have a right to watch Donald Trump tried in a rules-bound court of law, not in the circus-like court of conservative media spin. In Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that the press and public have a right to observe federal criminal trials. Unnecessary barriers should not be erected to diminish that right; US v. Trump should be televised.

Televising federal trials is not a new idea. The Judicial Conference piloted two programs to explore the use of cameras in the courtroom, one ending in 1994, the second in 2015. In a follow-up survey, many of the federal judges affirmed that cameras were not disruptive and did not change their behavior.

Letting cameras into federal courts has bipartisan support in Congress, including from Republican Senators Grassley and Cornyn, who co-sponsored the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act. When Grassley re-introduced the bill in 2021, he commented, “Federal courtrooms…represent the birthplace of decisions that can impact the lives of Americans for generations.” That could not be truer than in the outcome of U.S. v. Trump.

As Alberto Gonzales, former AG in the George W. Bush administration, put it, “The government has made the argument that every American was affected. This case is so unique that televising the proceedings deserves serious consideration.”

America needs to see the trial of U.S. v. Trump first-hand, unfiltered by media bias and partisan spin. Add your name now to call on the U.S. Judicial Conference and Chief Justice Roberts to suspend Rule 53 to make it possible.