Washington Post blasts Trump indictment as 'poor test case for prosecuting a former president'

In an editorial that reverberated across the nation's capital, The Washington Post declared Friday that the indictment secured by the Manhattan district attorney against former President Donald Trump is a "poor test case for prosecuting a former president."

In the piece, the newspaper's editorial board said the indictment announced Thursday evening is a cause for "caution and concern."

"Donald Trump deserves the legal scrutiny he's getting — which has come from many corners on many counts," the editorial stated. "Yet of the long list of alleged violations, the likely charges on which a grand jury in New York state voted to indict him are perhaps the least compelling. There's cause for concern, and caution, ahead."

A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump earlier this week over his alleged role in a payment to Stormy Daniels in 2016, making him the first former president to face criminal charges.

Many have criticized this indictment from a legal perspective, including liberal lawyer and Harvard professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show that the indictment announced Thursday is the weakest case he's ever seen in his 60 years of practicing law.

The Washington Post also wrote that a campaign finance charge that Trump is being accused of isn't very strong and compared it to a similar case that happened at the state level where the charges were dropped.  

"What's more, the potential campaign finance charge itself is shaky," the opinion piece states. "When federal prosecutors charged former Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) with a similar crime following his 2008 presidential run, he rebutted the accusation by arguing he was trying to disguise his faithlessness from his wife rather than from the voting public. The trial ended in acquittal on one count and a hung jury on others — at which point the Justice Department dropped the charges."

"The Trump indictment is a poor test case for prosecuting a former president," the newspaper concluded.

Charlotte Hazard is a reporter for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter for more stories.