Judge declines request to allow media cameras in courtroom ahead of Trump appearance

The judge presiding over former President Trump’s court appearance in Florida on Tuesday denied a request from media organizations to allow photographs and video inside the courtroom before the proceeding begins.

A four-page ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman late Monday night also denied the 26 media groups’ request for the court to release same-day audio of proceedings in the case.

Goodman ruled the media organizations had not cited any legal authority that would support the ability to photograph the proceeding.

“Moreover, allowing photographs would undermine the massive security arrangements put in place,” he wrote.

During Trump’s arraignment in New York earlier this year, the judge in that case had allowed a few still photographers inside the courtroom to capture Trump just before the proceeding began.

But Goodman, who will preside over Trump’s appearance Tuesday as the scheduled duty magistrate judge in the federal court’s Miami division, said the media groups could send a similar request to the U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who will oversee the case moving forward.

“I follow the ‘stay in your lane’ philosophy,” Goodman wrote. “My involvement in this case will almost certainly end tomorrow. … So I do not feel it is appropriate for me to rule on what happens in future proceedings when I am not the district court judge and when I will have no involvement whatsoever.”

In a separate ruling Monday, the district court’s chief judge prohibited journalists from bringing phones and “electronic equipment” inside the courthouse.

Previously, journalists in the Southern District of Florida could submit a written request to use text functionality on phones and laptops while in courtrooms as long as they agreed to not record any audio of proceedings.