US presidents cannot be prosecuted for selling pardons or assassinating political rivals through SEAL Team Six, personal Trump lawyer John Sauer argued Tuesday

Advancing a sweeping interpretation of executive immunity, Donald Trump’s attorney told a federal appeals court on Tuesday that U.S. presidents could not be prosecuted for selling pardons or assassinating political rivals through SEAL Team Six.

Trump’s lead attorney D. John Sauer argued that only a president who has been impeached and removed from office in a Senate trial potentially would be subject to prosecution for those kinds of alleged crimes.

A three-judge panel appeared extremely skeptical of Trump’s vision of absolute immunity, sharply questioning and interrupting Sauer during the opening minutes of the oral arguments with the former president himself sitting nearby.

“Could a president order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival? That’s an official act–an order to Seal Team Six,” U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan asked Sauer.

“He would have to be, and would speedily be, you know, impeached and convicted before the criminal prosecution,” Sauer replied, setting a pre-condition for such prosecution in Pan’s hypothetical.

  • Snot Flickerman
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    5 months ago

    So this means its open Trump hunting season for Biden, right? It is totally legal and cool for him to assassinate Trump, right??


    Of course we all know they intend for this argument to only apply to Trump.

    • Carighan Maconar
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      675 months ago

      Stuff like this is what I wish would happen.

      Like the german nazi party desperately wants more people to be evicted from Germany, I say great, evict the AfD politicians and their voters! Wooot! Everyone happy!

      • Snot Flickerman
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        5 months ago

        Right, when the right wing fuckos trot out their obviously bad-faith arguments, we should be taking to them to their logical fucking conclusions right the fuck away.

        It would be beautiful to see the entire Republican wing of the house pissing themselves and losing their shit knowing that an assassin from Biden could get them at any moment. Especially after the first few drop and Biden just says “it’s me, it’s totally legal and cool, right?” Also making sure to drop the first 20-or-so at the same time so right after it happens the Dems have a majority in both the House and Senate so no Republican can actually bring a vote for impeachment.

        They’d be screaming bloody murder because the only thing they actually care about is their own skins.

        • @AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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          175 months ago

          Nah, let them keep a majority in the house. They vote to impeach, the Senate acquits, then he goes for round two…

    • Flying Squid
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      115 months ago

      I know Elmer always lost, but I still want to see Trump being chased by Biden with a rifle like Elmer Fudd. Real life doesn’t have to imitate the cartoon.

    • @yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      No. If you read the article, you’ll see that this isn’t Sauer’s argument. It’s another ragebait title, and based on the comments in this thread, it’s working.

      EDIT: Okay, I see the flaw in my thinking. Carry on.

      • Heresy_generator
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        5 months ago

        His argument is that there would be no possible legal recourse if a US president tried to seize absolute power the way Saddam Hussein did in Iraq, by having everyone in the legislature that might oppose him lined up and shot.

      • @Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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        365 months ago

        Yeah it is. Maybe you’d like to think there’s some subtlety we’re missing because Sauer stated the President would need to be impeached to lose immunity, but what happens if the President assassinates anyone who would impeach him?

      • modifier
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        5 months ago

        Oh right on, hey call it off guys and gals. This dude read the article and says democracy is going to be just fine.

        Edit: much respect to anyone willing to update their conclusions based on new input.