Can A Sitting President Be Indicted?

[ZiprHead]

Maybe

"The 56-page memo, locked in the National Archives for nearly two decades and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, amounts to the most thorough government-commissioned analysis rejecting a generally held view that presidents are immune from prosecution while in office."

 

[RavenSky]

You left out the punch line: Ken Starr

Wouldn't that be the best thing ever! An analysis by Ken Starr (of Clinton witch-hunt era) leads to the indictment of Trump...

 

[laughing dog]

There is no explicit Constitutional language prohibiting an indictment.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

But since everyone in the Justice Department works for the President, can't he just fire them when they show up to arrest him so that they no longer have arrest authority?

 

[ZiprHead]

But since everyone in the Justice Department works for the President, can't he just fire them when they show up to arrest him so that they no longer have arrest authority?

I don't believe regular federal employees can be fired without cause. The higher muckety-mucks, yes, but not FBI agent Tommy Lee Jones.

 

[Keith&Co.]

But since everyone in the Justice Department works for the President, can't he just fire them when they show up to arrest him so that they no longer have arrest authority?

They just wear their badges backwards that day. Makes it 'Opposite Day.'
So when he shouts, 'You're Fired!' and 'Don't Arrest Me!' they just say 'thank you for permission, sir!'

Very probably, someone's told Trump about this simple loophole, but he wasn't paying close attention. Since then he's thought everything was opposite day.
"I won't be golfing, i'll be MAGA!"
"I have no business in Russia!"
"There was no collusion!"
"Any politician would have taken that meeting..."

 

[Bronzeage]

But since everyone in the Justice Department works for the President, can't he just fire them when they show up to arrest him so that they no longer have arrest authority?

The has never come up in actual experience. However, any realistic scenario which would lead to a President being indicted or arrested, would certainly trigger an impeachment hearing, and most likely a full impeachment. Once out of office, the former President would be an ordinary citizen and things would take their course.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Maybe

"The 56-page memo, locked in the National Archives for nearly two decades and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, amounts to the most thorough government-commissioned analysis rejecting a generally held view that presidents are immune from prosecution while in office."

A democratic president can be indicted. Republicans are exempt.

 

[jab]

But since everyone in the Justice Department works for the President, can't he just fire them when they show up to arrest him so that they no longer have arrest authority?

The has never come up in actual experience. However, any realistic scenario which would lead to a President being indicted or arrested, would certainly trigger an impeachment hearing, and most likely a full impeachment. Once out of office, the former President would be an ordinary citizen and things would take their course.

absent a Pierce pardon--a la Ford-Nixon

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe

"The 56-page memo, locked in the National Archives for nearly two decades and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, amounts to the most thorough government-commissioned analysis rejecting a generally held view that presidents are immune from prosecution while in office."

A democratic president can be indicted. Republicans are exempt.

Can we get Ken Starr's opinion on this--or absent Ken, Ringo's?