Donald Trump’s Georgia Trial on RICO Charges to Livestream on YouTube, Judge Rules

Donald Trump, once banned from YouTube, will return to the video site in an unexpected way after the Georgia judge overseeing the former president’s election interference case announced that the trial will be livestreamed on the Fulton County Court’s channel.

Judge Scott McAfee announced the trial’s broadcast Thursday, soon after Trump pleaded not guilty to the state racketeering and other charges related to efforts his and his 18 co-defendants’ attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State.

Trump was officially booked on felony charges last week in Atlanta. It was his fourth arrest this year and the first time an American president had his mugshot taken.

As it stands now, Georgia will offer a rare glimpse into Trump’s multiple criminal proceedings, as the other three cases he’s facing — in New York, and federal charges in Washington, D.C. and Florida — have barred cameras from the courthouse.

However, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes, co-defendant Mark Meadows is attempting to have his case moved from the county courthouse to a U.S. District Court, which disallows the proceedings from being televised or even photographed; if Meadows is successful in the venue change, it’s believed his co-defendants, Trump included, could also request the move for a more private, non-livestreamed trial.

In March 2023, Trump’s official YouTube page was reinstated, over two years after the account was initially indefinitely restricted — and then permanently banned — in the aftermath of the January 6 riot on the Capitol. In the months that followed his reinstatement, Trump has mainly used his YouTube to repost his Truth Social video rants.