April 3, 2023 Trump Indictment News | CNN Politics

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump told a New York judge on Monday that they oppose the media’s request to broadcast the indictment against Trump on Tuesday.

Trump’s lawyers said in a letter to acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that court rules require him to take potential security concerns into account.

“As Your Honor is well aware, this case raises extraordinary security concerns (including those related to the Secret Service), and we state that any video or photograph of the trial will only add to these serious concerns,” they wrote.

Among Trump’s lawyers who signed the new letter was Todd Blanche, who CNN reported recently joined the former president’s legal team.

Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office also responded to news outlets’ inquiries Monday, saying it leaves it up to the judge to decide how best to run his courtroom.

However, prosecutors wrote that it would be “a justifiable exercise of the court’s discretion to exclude or limit videotaping, photography and radio coverage of the charge in the interest of preventing potential harm to the defendant, maintaining order in the trial, ensuring the safety of participants in the trial, or for other reasons within the broad authority of the court to direct and control those proceedings.”

But prosecutors also noted that “there appears to be no categorical prohibition on the use of cameras during arraignments” under existing New York state laws and case law.

While the district attorney’s office did not object to the request, its lawyer pointed out to Merchan that a similar request for audio-video broadcast was made in 2021 in connection with tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

The judge responded to that 2021 request by “allowing a limited number of photographs to be taken prior to the start of the trial,” prosecutors noted Monday.

CNN is one of the networks requesting access to the camera for Tuesday’s arraignment.