Former Watergate attorney makes case for cameras in courtroom for Trump Jan. 6 trial

Former Watergate prosecutor Jon Sale made the case Thursday for the federal trial over former President Trump’s efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election to be televised, amid a similar push by Democratic lawmakers.

“I used to be against cameras in the courtroom,” Sale, who served as assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate case, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Now, I strongly believe this case needs to be televised because the American people need to see the story, so we don’t become numb to this.” 

“I mean, I saw Jon Meacham on your show a couple days ago, and he said there are a large number of people who would follow Donald Trump to a cliff and that a number of them might follow him over the cliff,” Sale continued. “Those are the people. Some of them need to see this case on television.”

As the former president faces federal charges in two separate cases — one over his efforts to block the transfer of power after the 2020 election and another over his mishandling of classified documents — more than 40 Democratic lawmakers argued in a letter earlier this month that the federal courts should grant an exception to their long-standing precedent barring the televising and recording of hearings.

“Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings,” the lawmakers said in the letter to the Judicial Conference, the body that oversees the federal court system.

“If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses,” they added.

However, Nick Akerman, another assistant special Watergate prosecutor, argued against the push for cameras in the courtroom in a New York Times op-ed last week, pointing to the media frenzy that surrounded the O.J. Simpson trial.

“A major lesson from the O.J. Simpson murder trial, which gripped the nation when it was broadcast starting in 1995, is how the impact of television can undermine a trial when the judge, lawyers, defendant and witnesses play to the viewing audience, as they did then,” Akerman wrote. 

“This turned a grave murder trial, with Mr. Simpson’s guilt or exoneration hanging in the balance, into daily entertainment,” he added. “Mr. Trump probably wants cameras in the courtrooms precisely for that reason.”

While the push to allow for Trump’s federal trials to be televised remains a long shot, cameras could be present in the courtroom for the former president’s trial in Georgia, where state courts typically allow for cameras.

In Manhattan, where Trump faces charges over a 2016 hush money payment, cameras are typically not permitted in the courtroom, although several photographers were briefly allowed inside during the former president’s arraignment in April.