Rudy Giuliani says Jack Smith, the chief prosecutor in two federal cases against Donald Trump, was echoing authoritarian regimes including Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union by voicing opposition to a trial being televised.
The former mayor of New York City and one-time attorney to the former president alleged the special counsel had shown his "immediate fascist instincts" by arguing that having cameras in the courtroom could hamper the criminal proceedings.
Referring to a request by Trump's lawyers for a trial over allegations of election interference—one of several court cases the former president is currently facing—to be televised, Giuliani said on Tuesday: "The first thing Jack Smith does is object to cameras in the courtroom.
"Well, of course he doesn't want cameras in the courtroom; neither did the prosecutors in Nazi Germany, nor did the prosecutors in the Soviet Union," he told his Instagram viewers. "[I] can't imagine if they have prosecutors in China that they want in the courtroom, and in Iran—where they sometimes have prosecutors and they sometimes just kill you—they don't have cameras in the courtroom.
"Sometimes they have cameras showing you being shot or hung [sic], as a deterrent, or if you're a woman, stoned. But they don't have cameras in the courtroom. So Jack Smith, showing his immediate fascist instincts," he said.
Giuliani went on to mimic Smith, saying: "I'm framing the guy, what the hell would I want cameras for?"
A spokesperson for Smith's office declined to comment on Giuliani's remarks when approached by Newsweek on Wednesday.
Trump was indicted on four counts in Washington, D.C., in August for allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which saw his rival Joe Biden win. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies any wrongdoing.
Giuliani is not named in the federal case, but is a co-defendant in another election interference case against Trump and some of his associates in Georgia. Both men have pleaded not guilty in this case and have described the charges as politically motivated.
Trump and several news networks have lobbied for the federal election interference trial to be televised, noting the significant public interest there will likely be in the trial. At a campaign event on Saturday, the former president said he wanted cameras "in every inch of that courthouse" as "I want everybody to see all of the horrible things that took place, all of the horrible charges."
Court rules do not allow for broadcasting of federal trials under normal circumstances, but both Trump and some major news outlets have requested a special exemption.
In a filing on Friday, Trump's attorneys said their client "absolutely agrees, and in fact demands, that these proceedings should be fully televised." They also accused Smith of attempting to "proceed in secret."
In a response on Sunday, Department of Justice attorney James Pearce, writing on behalf of Smith, said that Trump's submission "did not engage with the relevant Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure or cite any applicable case law, and instead made false and incendiary claims about the administration of his criminal case."
Update 11/15/23, 9:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a response from the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
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Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more
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