Trump Georgia election trial will be televised and live streamed, judge says

Former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference trial will be televised and live-streamed, the judge handling the case said Thursday. 

The legal proceedings will be broadcast on a YouTube stream operated by the court for television, radio, and still photography will be allowed, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said Thursday during a hearing on the level of media coverage that will be allowed inside the courtroom. 

“In line with the spirit of transparency here, we have followed Judge [Robert] McBurney’s model, and we have been livestreaming all of our major proceedings on a Fulton County-provided YouTube channel,” McAfee said.

“And our plan was to do that with this case as well. So there’s going to be a YouTube feed the entire time.”

A trial date has not yet been set by the judge. 

Trump, 77, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to 13 felony counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, opting not to appear in person along with his 18 co-defendants for a scheduled Sept. 6 arraignment, which will also be televised.

Trump’s Georgia trial will mark the first time cameras will be present to record the entire proceedings of one of the four criminal indictments handed to the former president. 

Photographers were briefly allowed inside the Manhattan courtroom where Trump was arraigned in April on charges related to alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis previously asked for a March 4, 2024, trial start date before revising her proposed trial date to Oct. 23, 2023, last week, after co-defendants and former Trump campaign lawyers Sidney Powell and  Kenneth Chesebro demanded a speedy trial. 

Trump’s legal team asked the court on Thursday to detach his case from the two campaign lawyers.