[h=1]Is President Trump Above The Law?[/h]Aa New York judge rejected President Trump’s attempt to use presidential immunity to dismiss a lawsuit connected to sexual harassment claims from “The Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos. Trump’s attorneys had argued that the president was immune from lawsuits in state court, but Judge Jennifer Schecter ruled that the president doesn’t have protection from state lawsuits for unofficial conduct. Though the decision is likely to be appealed, it’s the first to clarify that presidents can be sued in state as well as federal court.
President Trump, no stranger to litigation, is now facing the dual threat of criminal and civil legal action. As special counsel Robert Mueller marches forward with his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, evidence is mounting for the possibility of obstruction of justice charges. And Trump is already being sued in state court for defamation by one of the women who came forward during the presidential campaign with claims of past sexual misconduct.
The stakes are high, for both Trump and his critics. With a Republican-controlled Congress that shows little appetite for impeachment, legal action could be a powerful tool for undermining Trump’s presidency — and, if there’s evidence that he committed a crime, the most effective means of holding him accountable. But while both the lawsuit and the possibility of criminal charges have the potential to severely damage or even derail his presidency, it’s not clear how much Trump should be worried about this multi-pronged threat while he’s in the White House.
It is undisputed, according to legal experts, that litigation over obstruction of justice or defamation could proceed after Trump leaves office. But the question of whether the president can be sued or prosecuted while in office is murkier.
In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that Bill Clinton could face a civil lawsuit in federal court for actions outside the scope of his official duties. But the opinion pointedly noted that it was not addressing whether similar suits could proceed in state courts, which each have their own judges, juries and procedures. And although the Constitution provides instructions for how a president can be removed from office, it’s silent on whether the commander-in-chief can be indicted or criminally prosecuted.
Trump’s lawyers are contending that as president, he’s immune to civil lawsuits in the state courts as well as criminal charges like obstruction of justice because he holds the highest office in the land. And they could well be right. The courts have not ruled definitively on either issue — and it’s possible they would exempt him when presented with a chance to weigh in.
That’s one of several factors that could ultimately help Trump:
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The courts could rule that presidents need to be impeached and removed from office before they can be prosecuted.[/h]There are two schools of thought on why the Constitution doesn’t address the question of whether a president can be indicted. The first is that impeachment — rather than criminal prosecution — was seen as the appropriate course of action when there was evidence that the president might have broken the law. This interpretation can be traced as far back as the writings of Alexander Hamilton, who appeared to assume that the president would first be impeached and removed from office, then prosecuted for any crimes related to impeachment.
In this view, postponing prosecution until the president was out of office does not mean he is above the law; it simply avoids the impracticalities of bringing a president to trial.
“The case for impeachment is that a criminal prosecution of the president will inevitably have political overtones that would muddy the course of justice,” said Brian Kalt, a professor at Michigan State University College of Law. “So the idea is that you first put the president through a special political process — which is impeachment — and then he can go through the criminal justice system when he’s no longer in this special position of power.” If Congress chooses not to act even in the face of evidence that the president committed a crime, Kalt said, there’s another solution: The people can choose not to re-elect him.
Others have argued, however, that indictment wasn’t mentioned because it was obvious to the framers of the Constitution that criminal prosecution and impeachment were remedies for different kinds of misconduct.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-president-trump-above-the-law-possibly/
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