The Changing PR and Media Landscape of the Trump Indictments
We got an inkling this week of what a televised Donald Trump trial would look like when the fourth indictment of the former president was unsealed by a judge in an Atlanta courtroom—on live TV.
Already a media circus with TV trucks and police barricades lined up outside the courthouse, the proceedings quickly become a logistical nightmare for the press and the PR people surrounding the case.
By the time the judge unsealed the grand jury indictment and then kicked the press out of the courtroom, it was late on Monday night August 14. Officials then said it would take one to three hours for the indictment to be made available to the press and the public.
It was after 10:30 p.m. when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis held a press conference to announce details of the RICO and other charges against Trump and 18 co-defendants. (In a twist, Rudolph Giuliani, a former U.S. Attorney in New York who used RICO laws against the Mafia, is now among those charged with RICO violations.)
Why Hold a Late-Night Press Conference?
My first question as a PR consultant about the press conference: Why the heck would you hold it that late at night?
Did Willis want to get it over with? Was she afraid Trump, his allies and right-wing media would capture the overnight/early morning news cycle if she waited until the morning – flooding social media with attacks on her and the indictment as is their modus operandi?
The scene was already different from that when Trump was indicted by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg in the hush money case, and by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the documents case and the January 6 case. In those, there were no cameras in the courtrooms and the news conferences were held at a more normal time of day.
What was pretty much the same was the PR reaction by Trump, his allies and co-defendants – calling it a witch hunt, fake news, election interference, and a new comment – that the Georgia indictment was a danger to the U.S. justice system.
More Questions, Observations, PR/Media Odds & Ends – and a little Hillary Thrown In
Into this night of Trump indictment news came Hillary Clinton, appearing in an exclusive interview on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Ostensibly, she was there to discuss a recent opinion piece she wrote for The Atlantic (on the weaponization of loneliness), but Maddow asked her to comment on the indictment, and then about what Clinton thought of Trump rooting against the United States Women's National Soccer Team at the World Cup.
While all of this was going on, it’s worth asking why did it take so long for the unsealed indictment to be made public? In federal courts, there is an online court document system called Pacer. State court systems don’t have Pacer and what they do have is a mix and ad hoc systems nationwide. It should not have taken so long for this to be made public, but it did.
Another difference with the new indictment was cameras in the courtroom in Georgia. So, when Trump and the co-defendants are arraigned and go on trial it will be on TV. That’s a good thing – no more only seeing courtroom artist drawings and no more relying on journalists to describe how things look. You can see it for yourself.
And now that the indictment is out, there will also be no more speculating and perhaps no more rotating reporters – including hosts – outside the courthouse trying to guess when and what will happen. A trial will likely have more of a regular reporter beat coverage feel to it – not a pop-in host covering the story. On the night of the indictment, there was at least one cable host with a law degree talking legalese outside the courthouse -- over the audience's heads. They need to keep it simple.
The media and PR people involved will be doing this drill again between now and Aug. 25 when Willis said the defendants need to surrender to authorities.
It will be on live TV. Stay tuned.
