Laurence Tribe is profoundly aghast at the notion that a crook can crook his way into the presidency and then be untouchable on account of how the Justice Department Has Ruled that a sitting president can’t be indicted. The problem with that is obvious. If he got the position by committing crimes, how can it make sense to then make the very position he got by criminal means the thing that protects him from law enforcement? It’s absurd and it’s also…you know…a fucking disaster.
Pinned tweet:
NEW RULE:
Cheat & lie & commit enough felonies to become president — and you’ll get not just the office with all its powers, but a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card!
Retweet if you doubt Madison and Hamilton were dumb enough to put that incentive scheme in place.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) December 13, 2018
State constitutions like Michigan’s and Wisconsin’s build in protections against these anti-democratic power plays. New Jersey’s too, where the Democrats may be trying the same play.https://t.co/aFWyT3MmzX
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) December 18, 2018
This is starting to feel like an echo chamber. Until this “A-SITTING-PRESIDENT-CAN-BE-INDICTED-FOR-CHEATING-HIS-WAY-INTO-THE-PRESIDENCY” view breaks out of the silo, it won’t cause the necessary waves. If you think retweeting might help, please do that!https://t.co/fOQAYGxD1S
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) December 17, 2018
That Truthout piece has Neil Katyal agreeing with Tribe’s view.
The Office of Legal Counsel memos stating that a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution do not necessarily protect Trump, according to some legal experts.
“The justifications underlying the general practice of treating [Office of Legal Counsel] opinions as binding on executive branch officials do not necessarily apply to the Office of Special Counsel, which is supposed to be insulated from the influence of political appointees when assessing the president’s exposure to criminal liability,” Harvard law professor Andrew Crespo wrote at Lawfare blog. The Office of Legal Counsel memos, Crespo noted, were written by presidential appointees beholden to the president.
Neal Katyal, solicitor general in the Obama administration, says the Office of Legal Counsel opinions may not prevent Trump from being indicted because they “don’t necessarily apply to a circumstance in which the actual crime may have involved him obtaining the presidency in the first place.”
One would certainly hope so.