Huh?
This HAS gone off the rail’s….
Former President Trump’s legal team suggested Tuesday that even a president directing SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent would be an action barred from prosecution given a former executive’s broad immunity to criminal prosecution.
The hypothetical was presented to Trump attorney John Sauer who answered with a “qualified yes” that a former president would be immune from prosecution on that matter or even on selling pardons….
….
James Pearce, a lawyer with Smith’s office, forcefully pushed back against the notion that mechanisms to hold presidents accountable for criminal actions should be weakened.
“What kind of world are we living in … if a president orders his SEAL team to murder a political rival and then resigns or is not impeached — that is not a crime? I think that is an extraordinarily frightening future that should weigh heavily on the court’s decision,” Pearce said.
At one point, Judge Florence Pan, another Biden appointee, noted that Trump’s legal team argued essentially the opposite case when he faced a second impeachment, in this case for his conduct related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol….
Note….
I’m NOT a lawyer but these legal arguments seem to counter productive for the Supreme’s ….
Trump’s lawyers ARE essentially asking that a President be treated as a “King’ something the people who put this government together centuries ago wanted to get away from….
Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
Judge Henderson asks how the courts could write an opinion that would not unleash a floodgate of prosecutions of former presidents. The special counsel’s office says it’s been understood since Nixon’s resignation that presidents can be prosecuted for their acts in the White House.
Lawyer James Pearce says this would not be a sea change and the fact it hasn’t come up until now underscores how serious Trump’s conduct was.