NYT’s Brooks: Smith Was Right to Drop Case, It’s More Dangerous if We ‘Use Trials as Political Weapons’ Going Forward

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that he thinks Special Counsel Jack Smith was correct to dismiss the case against President-Elect Donald Trump and said that “the greater danger is that we use trials as political weapons in the years ahead.”

Brooks said, “I think, in general, obviously, no person is above the law. And, in my view, if a sitting president has committed a murder, extortion, some horrible crime like that, then the precedent that we don’t prosecute sitting presidents, that should be overridden. In this particular case, some of the trials, especially in New York and Georgia, looked a little political. Donald Trump ran saying, they’re attacking me with lawfare. Kamala Harris talked a lot about the trials. So, it was right there in the center of the election. And 75 million Americans decided it wasn’t disqualifying. And, to my view — and I understand there’s a danger in putting him sort of above the law — but, to me, the greater danger is that we use trials as political weapons in the years ahead. So, I think, on balance, Jack Smith did the right thing.”

He added, “I think respect for democracy and for the precedent that we don’t use trials as political footballs — and once we start eroding that precedent, I think we’re very close to the point where we start using trials as political footballs. And that would be terrible for our politics and for our judicial system.”

Brooks further stated, “There’s no way Jack Smith did anything to subvert the rule of law in this country. It was not — what he did was not recriminations. It was not vengeful. It was just trying to uphold the law.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett