Special Counsel Jack Smith made a shocking move on Saturday morning to severely limit transparency in his case against President Trump in Washington DC, relating to the unrest on January 6th.

Smith made a court filing requesting that all cameras and audio feeds in Trump’s high-profile case are prohibited from the courtroom.

“Here’s the Judicial Conference—having studied the issue for decades—reaffirmed the policy of the federal courts in September 2023. Its policy judgement was to continue to prohibit the audio or video broadcasting of criminal trials. While Applicants are free to advocate their views to policy makers, this Court should decline their invitation to ignore the binding nature of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53. Accordingly, the Applications should be denied.” The filing said.

Special Counsel Jack Smith fighting against video and audio access to Trump’s March 2024 trial in DC.

This is absurd bc the DC court of appeals provides audio access to oral arguments. At the very least, chief judge of DC district court should allow audio feed. pic.twitter.com/0pUJkQLxyV

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) November 4, 2023

The law Smith is citing was enacted in 1946, far before contemporary media heavily relied on audio and photos for reporting.

A coalition of media organizations, including the Associated Press and the New York Times wrote a brief to Judge Chutkan in an attempt to allow audio and photographs in the courtroom.

“Since the founding of our nation, we have never had a criminal case where securing the public’s confidence will be more important than with United States v. Donald Trump,” The brief said.