Orioles owner and presidential scholar David Rubenstein: Many people felt it wasn't a good idea to indict Trump

Candy Woodall, Baltimore Sun on Dec 29, 2024

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Orioles owner David Rubenstein sees the intersection of political trials and public perception as a dicey one.

Rubenstein, a Baltimore native and lawyer who advised the late President Jimmy Carter, appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday to promote his new book, “The Highest Calling: Conversations on the American Presidency.” The conversation quickly turned to the incoming presidency and second term of President-elect Donald Trump.

While discussing a bitter election in which both major parties feared the other returning to power in 2025, the interviewer asked Rubenstein what lessons could be learned from the clash between politics and the law — especially the multiple legal challenges Trump faced.

“I think there is a feeling among many people that it wasn’t a good idea to indict the president of the United States,” Rubenstein said. “I think the trial in New York where Trump was convicted, I think really helped him in his election effort. And I think there are many people who are Trump supporters who believe that the indictments that came out of the special prosecutor Jack Smith were really political as well.”

Meanwhile, people in the Justice Department feel the indictments were fair and correct, according to Rubenstein, whose Nantucket estate has been used by the Biden family for Thanksgiving. But Trump supporters believed they were completely political, leading to a feeling that both sides were talking past each other, he said.

“I hope going forward that the Justice Department is not seen as political because one of the strengths of this country has been the rule of law, and I hope that the Justice Department that’s coming in now will continue that tradition,” Rubenstein said.

Trump has said he wants to fight against the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice and nominated Pam Bondi as attorney general after former Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. Bondi is a former Florida attorney general and represented Trump during his first impeachment trial. She also supported his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore,” Trump said on Truth Social last month. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Rubenstein also pointed out Trump’s opportunity with a second term. As an author who has examined presidential histories, the Orioles owner noted that Trump’s inauguration next month will mark a rare moment for the country.

“Clearly, we’re going into some uncharted waters because we have a president coming back who had been president before. That hadn’t happened since Grover Cleveland was reelected in 1892, and Trump has got more power than I think many people would have thought by the virtue of his victory size,” Rubenstein said. “And I do think he’s going to act like he’s got a mandate, and Washington is bracing for what’s going to happen.”

Maryland is also bracing for a second Trump term. Comptroller Brooke Lierman and state Senate President Bill Ferguson, both Democrats, cautioned earlier this month that Trump’s incoming administration could exacerbate the state’s financial pressures, as it stares at a nearly $3 billion deficit. They are especially concerned about Trump’s promises to reduce the federal workforce, an industry upon which Maryland relies. But some Republicans say the state is too reliant on the federal government.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, of Allegany County, said the government “is not designed to be an industry.”

“Government is designed to provide services that are needed and necessary in the most efficient way possible for the benefit of its citizens,” he said. “Folks of both parties have lost sight of that in Washington, D.C., and we’ve certainly lost sight of it in Annapolis, Maryland.”

Although many Democrats in Maryland and across the country have shared concern and apprehension about a second Trump administration — especially his campaign rhetoric on retribution — Rubenstein struck a more optimistic tone.

He mentioned how Abraham Lincoln faced fierce criticism and rose above it, and Rubenstein said he thinks presidents have to rise above criticism.

“And, hopefully, when you don’t have to worry about politics anymore in a second term, for example, you can rise above all the concerns you’ve had,” he said. “When you’re president of the United States, if you carry resentments too long, it can affect other people adversely. So I think in the case of President Trump, for example, clearly he has some resentments, but I think overall, I think he’s going to rise above that in the second term.”

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