Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/23/trump-lawyer-he-could-not-be.html
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That’s been the justice department’s position for decades, hasn’t it? I mean, if this were not the Onion:
Then according to the DOJ the proper course would be for congress to impeach Trump and then for the FBI to arrest the former president. It may be bad rhetoric, but it’s accurate, right?
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That seems to be the conclusion the DOJ came to and what was stated in the Mueller Report. In response, however, I’ve read several opinions stating that it’s not law, just a policy, and that it hasn’t been tested in court yet, so we don’t really know.
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This is a poor choice of words for the headline vs. the actual content. The distinction of being investigated while in office and prosecuted while in office is the crux of the argument.
Trump is maintaining that the traditional bar of prosecution extends to any “criminal process” whatsoever, including the investigation of crimes with which the President may be associated. That is the absurdity of the argument.
ETA: I see the headline has been modified accordingly
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Ah, yes but you see, they also claim he is immune from investigation related to impeachment. So you have to impeach and remove him before you can investigate whether he needs to be impeached and removed. It’s all part of that Deep State “fake constitution” stuff.
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People are phrasing the question incorrectly - it should be that Trump could rape a baby in St Patrick’s Cathedral and not be investigated or prosecuted.
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Our last POTUS was a professor of congressional law.
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“L’etat, c’est moi” an unwise person said once.
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How I miss him, imperfections and all.
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So I can dress up as Trump, murder his lawyer’s family, and no investigation of any kind is allowed.
I mean how do you know it WASN’T Trump without an investigation?
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Is that true? A sitting President can’t be investigated for murder? That doesn’t seem right at all.
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So effectively, we no longer live in a democracy with co-equal branches of government, and the person residing in the White House is above the law.
The Republican Party is the party of fucking shit up. Always and forever.
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What they are misconstruing and interpreting is that a sitting POTUS cannot be put on trial in a standard court while in office. The process/procedure outlined is that they can be investigated, and then impeached in the House…then the trial is performed by the Senate. Once removed from office, THEN the now former POTUS can be charged and tried in a standard court if needed.
But reading is fundamental and way to hard for these people.
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The republican party is explicitly anti-government. They will always try to break it, because that’s the central position of the party – that government is wrong and a problem and causes nothing but problems.
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To add to what @anon61833566 says, it’s DOJ policy, so how they interpret the constitution. For us to find out, we’d have to go through an actual legal process before the Supreme Court to test whether or not that’s true. I’d guess that even with the current make up of the court, they prize the separation of powers and their autonomy enough not to throw it out the window by saying the executive branch has unlimited powers, which is essentially what that means when someone says you can’t prosecute a sitting president.
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I would also add there is some common sense here going on. We can’t have a POTUS sitting in a court room defending every this, that, and the other lawsuit or charge against them. It would grind the office to a halt.
BUT…assuming what the POTUS or administration has done is serious enough that they need to be prosecuted…well they SHOULD be impeached and removed from office at that point.
The only one that did something so egregious that it would have gone down this path ended up resigning.
Then again…we are living in a messed up version of reality with this one.
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