Here’s my video explaining why federal officers at the DOJ, the FBI, or a Special Counsel's Office cannot indict their own Chief Executive.
While he is their Chief Executive.
Once he's no longer their Chief Executive?
Well, then, they can indict him as many times as they want after he leaves office.
But until one of these things happens?
A President resigns
A President fails in a reelection bid, and a successor is sworn in,
A President gets both impeached and then convicted in a Senate trial and is removed from office
A President is removed from office via the 25th Amendment
A President has a 2nd term in the White House come to an end…
…no federal law enforcement officer may file a criminal indictment of their boss.
Now, as I discuss in the video, it’s exceedingly freaking weird how many supposedly competent legal and political analysts on my TV and coming across my social media feeds have forgotten that federal agencies can’t indict the guy who runs the federal agencies.
Water can’t rise higher than its own source and the nation’s chief law enforcement officer cannot be criminally prosecuted by the people who work for him.
I'm not articulating some exotic or arcane legal theory here. This is a very well-established law.
While in office, a president is immune from criminal charges or prosecution. However, after the President leaves office, the issue of whether he committed criminally chargeable conduct can arise.
And if you want to charge a former President who is no longer in the White House for having committed crimes, you bear the burden of proving the criminal conduct you are alleging was not part of the President’s official duties and responsibilities.
And surprisingly enough, because Jack Smith wants to claim that President Donald J. Trump committed chargeable crimes surrounding January 6 at the Capitol Building, he is currently having to wait to proceed with trials in Washington DC and Palm Beach as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the presidential immunity issue.
Trump claims that his actions on and surrounding J6 were part of his official duties as President, and many of the actions he took on that day were due to his fulfillment of presidential responsibilities. Trump is advancing the same immunity claims regarding the supposedly ‘still classified’ documents he took with him to his home at Mar A Lago when he left office in January 2021.
However, people should not confuse apples with oranges when it comes to Biden and Trump’s current situations. Biden is currently in the White House. For all intents and purposes and appearances, Biden is the current President. Trump ceased being the President on January 20, 2021.
Special Counsel Smith has brought multiple felony charges against Trump in two different venues now that Trump has left the White House.
Special Counsel Robert Hur could not bring any charges against the Chief Executive of the Federal Branch of the United States Government. Hur did not bring any charges against Biden for stealing, illegally retaining, and exposing classified documents for years because Hur could not bring any charges.
It is an ongoing mystery why Hur was not honest and felt the need to float a fake excuse for not bringing charges against Biden. All Hur had to say was, “I didn’t charge the President because you can’t charge the President.”
Instead of that frank and truthful admission, he got some absurd song-and-dance about how a jury would never convict such a swell, old, senile man.
If it seems like we’re in a strange situation right now, that’s because…we’re in a very strange situation right now.
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