Laurence Tribe, Harvard Con law prof: Yes, a sitting President CAN be indicted.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. I actually read through that entire thing

and it was a legal opinion based on what had happened with Nixon in 1973 and went on to include Clinton (which was different) - published 2000.

Where we are today is light years from 17 years ago (at publication) referencing incidents from 44 years ago (and including court cases from the '70s and '90s).

I think there is a bit of naivete in the opinion that assumed that -

1.) If the wagons were fast circling, the President would resign.
2.) If impeachment were to go forward, Congress would "do the right thing" - (i.e., the brief mentions that they were "accountable to their constituents", despite the fact that due to the hyper-partisan creation of Congressional Districts at the state level (not mentioned), that more and more in Congress have only pledged accountability to a part of their constituency - and in some cases state-wide, a minority party by registration, garners a majority of the Congressional Districts).
3.) The "high crimes and misdemeanors" would generally not rise to a level of criminality beyond "cover up".

I think we are in uncharted waters and I really don't think "the founders" believed that a President could do no wrong to the point of near dictatorship, without intervention beyond at least one other branch than Congress and the Chief Justice (when in the Senate for trial) - I.e., judicial branch in general, not just the SCOTUS. The brief even admitted that (paraphrase) - "Well yeah, there is a provision for the succession to the VP if...", while still insisting that if the President was under criminal investigation, the country would fall apart. There needs to be follow-through on a "what-if", when you have a President who refuses to resign and a Congress that refuses to impeach, and the country is imperiled with a potential rogue in office. Just the fact that "the founders" were well aware as to why the revolution occurred, so too would they have thought about such a scenario of what we see today.