Electing prosecutors is a terrible idea. Trump’s conviction shows why.

If Manhattan’s elected district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has time, he should ponder a speech delivered by the U.S. attorney general in 1940. Before Bragg takes his next turn on the political stage — before he recommends a penalty at former President Donald Trump’s July 11 sentencing hearing — he should consider Robert Jackson’s thoughts on the role of restraint in the prosecutorial profession.

During the 2021 campaign, Bragg said he had sued Trump “over 100 times” with the New York Attorney General’s office and promised to continue his efforts to “hold Trump accountable.” In 2023, seven years after Trump’s specific wrongdoings, but just in time to affect this year’s election, Bragg indicted Trump on “34” felony charges.

Read the full opinion at washingtonpost.com.