Watergate prosecutor warns: Televising Trump trial would make every witness a target

With former President Donald Trump facing a federal criminal trial for the 2020 presidential election plot, many voices are clamoring for federal courts to suspend the longstanding rule prohibiting cameras in the courtroom, so Americans can see a potential 2024 presidential candidate in the trial of the century. Trump's own lawyer, John Lauro, has raised the possibility himself.

But not so fast, warned former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman in a New York Times article that he elaborated upon on MSNBC Wednesday night — that could be a mistake. Indeed, he warned, it could end up like a mob trial, with witnesses unwilling to testify, and the ones who do finding themselves in physical danger.

"I really found your piece interesting, particularly because I had been mostly hearing people saying that we should televise it," said anchor Chris Hayes.

"Transparency, transparency, transparency," acknowledged Akerman.

"This isn't quite a mob trial, right?" said Hayes. "Donald Trump isn't quite a mobster."

"No, but the people that support him — and that he's really a cult leader, and that there are people out there in the world that will do almost anything — will take the slightest little words that Donald Trump says and act on them," said Akerman. "This wasn't the first instance, by the. way. We had a shooter that was in Cincinnati, outside the FBI field office, looking to shoot FBI agents after a search warrant was executed on Mar-a-Lago. So this is not the first time."

"It's true," said Hayes. "I, in fact, had even forgotten that."

"The real danger here is, who would want to be in the witness stand that would be televised to the entire world, where they would suddenly become a major target of these people?" said Akerman.

Watch the video below or at the link.

Nick Akerman warns of dangers of televising Trump trialwww.youtube.com