Any reasonable person looking at these circumstances say 10, 15, 20 years ago would think 'No, that could never happen. He'd be barred from office, maybe even imprisoned."
And yet, here we are. This timeline, for the US anyway, deserves to be pruned.
Even if the court then acts with considerable speed and definitively rules against Mr. Trump within a month, the trial would most likely not start until at least the fall, well into the heart of the presidential campaign.
In agreeing to hear the case, the Supreme Court said it would decide this question: “Whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”
“Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy,” Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court in Washington wrote, “the United States has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
“Neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances,” Chief Justice Warren E. Burger wrote for a unanimous court.
“In view of the special nature of the president’s constitutional office and functions,” Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote for the majority, “we think it appropriate to recognize absolute presidential immunity from damages liability for acts within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.”
“This case involves the far weightier interest in vindicating federal criminal law in a prosecution brought by the executive branch itself,” he wrote.
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Honestly for this crime, he shouldn't be charged here. It should be done as an impeachment. That's what a plain reading of the rules implies. And it's why it's such a travesty that the Democrats fumbled the second impeachment like they did.
They needed to slow walk the investigation and impeachment process and give it time for Americans to pressure their Republican congressmen to vote to impeach, similar to what happened with the Nixon investigation.
I don't think there's any amount of pressure that would result in the GOP voting to impeach. The lesson they learned from the Nixon impeachment was to create Fox News and further insulate themselves from public pressure.
I don't know, there have been a surprisingly large number of high profile, unexpected Congressional retirements because of Trump. Those same people might have been willing to vote against him in a prolonged impeachment trial.j
I mean you say that, but imagine the case here was more suspect (which it could be) and targeted against a different former President for political reasons. It can't be that difficult to imagine such a case.
Trump should absolutely be prosecuted for his actions up to and including J6; but the prosecutions need to happen via the impeachment process, not in individual state and federal court rooms.
The Senate chose not to impeach because by the time they got around to it he was not president. It had nothing to do with the legality of it. It was even stated by several of them that the actions were now left to the justice system.
There is no reason why a president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed during the presidency.
Which was stupid. They should have continued to impeach because then they could legally bar him from running from office again.
There is no reason why a president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed during the presidency.
Can you really think of no way to abuse this? Imagine when Biden leaves office if Texas tries to prosecute him for "dereliction of duty" or on whatever Texas' equivalent of a RICO charge is because his actions "assisted organized crime". Should they be allowed to?