Tweet from Gov. Whitmer's Deputy Digital Director.

[wnylib]

43. I understood the idea of judicial

interpretation when I asked the question. What I wondered was what part of the constitution would lend itself to the interpretation that a sitting president cannot be indicted. You answered that with a plausible interpretation of impeachment as a defense against criminal indictment in a court, and arrest. His position as head of the Justice Department gives him a political advantage against federal criminal charges since he appoints the AG, as we see with Barr.

But would that extend to non federal charges, e.g. criminal charges brought by one or more ststes? NY was able to issue a ruling about his NY based charities. And he also was ruled against for his Trump University fraud. True, that ruling did not involve arrest and and removal from office for actions that might have got someone else criminal fraud charges and some prison time.

Since impeachment is a political process rather than a criminal court process, there needs to be the possibility of criminal charges, at least for felonies, or else the concept of even the president not being above the law is meaningless.

What if the president is in the process of committing a serious crime that is so injurious to citizens or to national security that it requires immediate action - more immediate than the lengthy process of impeachment? If he is surrounded by political toadies and accomplices, how can he be stopped? Do we need an amendment that specifies what types of crimes require such urgent action that the president can be immediately charged? Something written well enough to prevent political abuse of the amendment.

Meantime, if he relies on judicial interpretation based on the option of impeachment to protect him, it is especially convenient that he will soon have a 6 to 3 conservative majority on the SC.

So, after losing the election and knowing he faces criminal charges once Biden is in office, he can skip the country between Nov 3 and Jan 20 to evade state charges and prosecution, since a federal pardon from Pence would not apply to state charges. Or, does he expect to appeal state charges all the way to the SC and get a favorable ruling from the addition of his conservative appointees?