Former Watergate prosecutor Jon Sale "strongly believes" the case against former President Donald Trump being tried by special counsel Jack Smith "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 [historian and presidential biographer] 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 said Thursday during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"Those are the people. Some of them need to see this case on television."
Trump faces 91 felony counts across four indictments.
He was indicted on felony charges in early August for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol, with the Justice Department acting to hold him accountable for an unprecedented effort to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power and threaten American democracy.
Smith's office spent months investigating Trump.
Sale said Smith's case against the former president is the "most serious that can get tried."
"I think that realistically that one can get tried," he added.
More than 40 Democrat lawmakers argued in a letter earlier this month that the federal courts should allow 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.
Nick Akerman, another assistant special Watergate prosecutor, last week in a New York Times Op-Ed argued against having cameras in the courtroom.
"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."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.