Trump lawyers ask New York judge to BAN cameras from court when he is indicted in Stormy Daniels hush-money probe – as he brings in top white collar attorney Todd Blanche to help fight case
- The motion asks judge Juan Merchan to keep cameras out of the court
- Trump faces an arraignment Tuesday where he will make his plea
- New lawyer Todd Blanche previously represented Paul Manafort
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have filed a motion asking the judge overseeing his indictment in Manhattan to keep cameras out of the courtroom to avoid a spectacle when he enters his plea.
The maneuver comes as Trump flew to New York to be arrested and fingerprinted in the Stormy Daniels case – with a phalanx of media gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse and Trump making plans for a speech at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday.
New York courts don’t ordinarily allow for cameras, although a group of media outlets were able to seek an exception under state law. Trump’s team opposed the move, ‘because it will create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment, raise unique security concerns, and is inconsistent with President Trump ‘s presumption of innocence,’ they wrote in a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, CNN reported.
Media outlets including NBC News and the New York Times sought to allow cameras to record Trump’s plea for the historic first time a former president is charged with a crime.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump don’t want a judge to allow cameras inside a Manhattan courthouse when he has his arraignment Tuesday
The move is one of several expected motions in what his lawyers say will be an aggressive legal strategy.
Trump is also making new moves, adding another lawyer to his stable of defenders. This time, he is adding Todd Blanche, a white collar criminal defense attorney who resigned from his law firm to take the Trump case.
He resigned his position as a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft because ‘ I have been asked to represent Trump in the recently charged DA case, and after much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up,’ he wrote in an email, Politico reported.
The legal moves came as Trump made his way to New York to be arrested Tuesday
A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict former president Donald Trump over hush money paid to pornstar Stormy Daniels
Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels, although he has acknowledged reimbursing Trump lawyer Michael Cohen $130,000 in the hush deal
Attorney Todd Blanche left his firm and will be representing Trump
Juan Manuel Merchan will rule on the request for camera access
He has previously represented figures in Trump world including former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on corruption charges, and who won a Trump pardon days before the president left office.
He also represented businessman Igor Fruman, a former associate of former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who along with associate Lev Parnas helped introduce him to Ukrainians while the former New York mayor probed alleged Biden corruption in Ukraine.
Blanche’s LinkedIn page now lists him as the founding member of his own firm.
Blanche served as co-chief of the White Plains Division of the Southern District of New York, where he supervised Assistant US Attorneys in public corruption and RICO cases.
It comes as prominent New York attorney Joseph Tacopina, who has been conducting a spate of media appearances, could face a motion by prosecutors to step back from the case, due to past communications with Stormy Daniels when she was seeking representation.
The move to keep cameras out of the courtroom comes as Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene is planning a rally in New York Tuesday. Trump himself had called for protests, but plans to leave New York and give a speech at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night.
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