General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI am not aware of anything in the Constitution which says president can't be indicted or
subpoenaed. The arguments that urge that he can't be consist mostly of "BUT, HE'S THE PRESIDENT!!!"
It really isn't complicated. We have a choice of either "No man is above the law" or "When the president does it, it's not illegal".
Don't know about you, but if it comes to that, I'll be in the street.
tazkcmo
(7,300 posts)But I might need a ride!
RainCaster
(10,869 posts)So why do we even ask that now?
Atticus
(15,124 posts)former9thward
(31,987 posts)It was Bill Clinton's DOJ that said a president could not be indicted.
https://verdict.justia.com/2017/08/14/indicting-president-president-clintons-justice-department-says-no
GeorgeGist
(25,320 posts)the SCOTUS does.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Rod Rosenstein would have to approve any indictment.
shanny
(6,709 posts)which generally happens after there are disagreements between lower courts. This has never been tested in practice so there is no case to decide one way or the other. So yeah, actually, the decision would be with DOJ, for now.
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)All of the people arguing otherwise are either basing themselves on one of two things. Either, DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel opinions under Nixon and Clinton, which both may have been designed to protect the President against possible indictments. Or they are pedantic legal scholars who are only looking at it theoretically, rather the way a court would look at Trump.
A court would look at Trump and see that Trump is accused of serious republic-busting crimes, and his lawyer is arguing that the Judiciary as coequal to the Executive can't do anything about it? I don't see any court going for that. Nixon's own lawyer refused to own it in court, saying "The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land except the court of impeachment.
RockRaven
(14,962 posts)Bush lackey Yoo wrote memos saying torture was legal. Obama admin didn't think so.
They reflect the attitude of the administration (or their peons) at that time, not precedence from the judiciary.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,851 posts)Not even the President.
That lesson has been large forgotten since then, but it still is true.