This message was self-deleted by its author

[branford]

21. It is very unlikely that a former president of the USA would ever face criminal prosecution.

Although I am an attorney, I cannot definitively state whether former presidents could be protected from criminal prosecution in the USA under theories of general or limited immunity for acts during their presidency. It legally would likely depend on the type, nature and extent of the specific alleged acts and the degree of proof available. Statute of limitations problems could also arise and "continuing crimes" have their own unique legal hurdles. Nevertheless, as a purely practical matter, unless the crimes are undeniably personal in nature (e.g., the president raped or physically assaulted an underling), no later administration would even consider a prosecution. It's simple politics and self-interest. Politics is a shady and compromising profession. If you prosecuted a predecessor in office, you would virtually guarantee your own later prosecution. Similarly, no current administration would seriously and in good faith endeavor to investigate criminal wrongdoing of a predecessor. You cannot prosecute what you cannot discover or completely prove.

I am, however, confident that a former president would not enjoy immunity for a hypothetical present crime (not a crime continuing from his time in office). Nevertheless, the same political consideration would prevail.

Additionally, as a related matter, no president would ever turn-over a former president to a foreign authority for either past or current crimes. Americans are fiercely independent and distrust foreign courts and powers. The United Nations is probably less popular than Congress and herpes. The optics of allowing a former president to be tried by a foreign court for almost anything would be political and historical suicide for the president and anyone who supported such a decision. I can even imagine that certain military, security and law enforcement officers and officials would resign rather than comply with such an order, or even outright mutiny.