You know how I know the Donald sucks as President and as a human? It's because Steve Castor is no longer around as part of his team.
So, it looks like the lawyer did answer that hypothetical. Trump Has Taken Presidential Immunity to its Illogical Extreme - The Atlantic In a hearing before the D.C. Circuit Court, the former president’s lawyers argued that he should be immune from criminal prosecution for his role in the attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election. This argument has an obvious flaw: It implies that the president is above the law. Such a blunt rejection of the Constitution and the basic concept of American democracy is too much even for Trump to assert—publicly, at least—so his lawyers have proposed a theory. They say that he can’t be criminally prosecuted unless he is first impeached and convicted by Congress. This argument is no less dangerous, as a hypothetical asked in court demonstrated in chilling terms. Judge Florence Pan asked Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, if “a president who ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival” could be criminally prosecuted. Sauer tried to hem and haw his way through an answer but ultimately stated that such a president couldn’t be prosecuted unless he was first impeached, convicted, and removed by Congress. “But if he weren’t, there would be no criminal prosecution, no criminal liability for that?” Pan pressed. Sauer had no choice but to agree, because acknowledging any exceptions would have blown a hole in his argument. ...
This is not quite on point. The unanswered question is whether a POTUS could assassinate a political rival and then be tried after he/she leaves office. I do not think a POTUS could be tried for the assassination while in office. POTUS would first need to be impeached, convicted and removed, before being tried.
I believe in 2021, Trump also argued that you can't impeach a President once they are out of office. If you combine his two views here, he could do anything he wanted in his last days of office since he couldn't be impeached and, since he wasn't impeached, he couldn't later be tried in the legal system either.
Trump's whole defense is illogical, I still say let him run or else Nikki will be licking her chops to ban abortion nationwide and possibly add younger federalist society judges to the SC.
That's based on a legal opinion (a sitting President cannot be indicted) of the DoJ in 1973 that became moot when Nixon resigned. The Constitution does NOT explicitly grant immunity to a sitting President from criminal prosecution, but a legal opinion from Nixon's own DoJ (somewhat a conflict of interest) stated so and has not really been challenged in court since then. I don't think that is being challenged here either (the prosecutor is not challening it and obviuolsy Trump is not challenging it). What Trump is arguing is that he's not only immune during his time in office but even after he left office. The hypothetical, therefore, is about the specific case that Trump is claiming - is a President who murdered his political opponent (and was somehow not impeached and removed by Congress) immune from criminal prosecution after leaving office.
Which makes sense. Impeachment is to remove from office. It's moot once you are no longer in office. On his last days in office, he can order the military to kill the President-elect and everyone in line to become the president. He can also kill any congressman or senator that would vote to impeach or convict him.
effectively, Trump legal team is arguing that should current POTUS orders SEAL team to assasinate the leading Republican candidate and because, there is a less than 2/3 majority in the Senate to impeach, Biden can't be prosecuted !
Or even if he Biden could be prosecuted by the Senate, Biden could retire immediately and not be an active President, so there would be no way to ever convict him for killing a political opponent.
We also need to remember that impeachment is not a criminal penalty. It is specifically a legislative function and not a judicial function. The Founders made this very clear in the Federalist papers.
And to further protect himself, he could kill enough republican senators to make sure he was impeached.
Agree 100%. As we have found out, much of the functions of government relies on civility, ethics, tradition and societal norms, and is not codified into law. Trump has come in and bulldozed the civility, ethics, traditions and norms. Now, the law is trying to catch up.
If the Supreme court comes out in favor of unlimited presidential immunity, and I was president, Trump would fall out of a window on the top floor of Trump tower the next day.
Will Obama be spared since the civilians he killed were on foreign soil? Biden's human trafficking will be under the microscope once Trump goes to prison.
