The stark question was posed to Trump’s attorney John Sauer by Judge Florence Pan: Was a president immune from prosecution for any unlawful act, at all? Could a president order his political rivals to be assassinated by Seal Team 6 as an official act? Could he sell pardons at his pleasure if he saw fit and then face no consequences for his actions?

“He would have to be impeached and convicted first,” Sauer replied,

  • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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    11 months ago

    Taken to it’s logical conclusion, this idea would basically posit that all the president must do to become a dictator is take out the whole Senate at once, or just have absolute loyalists in enough of the seats, or a combination of the two. If there’s no Senate, the president can’t be impeached and convicted, and if the president cant be held accountable for anything unless that happens, then they can illegally stop any new elections to get new senators with no consequences (or a new president for that matter) and act with impunity.

    • gregorum@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Taken to it’s logical conclusion, this idea would basically posit that all the president must do to become a dictator is take out the whole Senate at once, or just have absolute loyalists in enough of the seats, or a combination of the two

      Didn’t they sorta try that 3 years ago? Shouldn’t that be a huge red flag for this argment?

      • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        They have a much more rigorous plan for this now. The following is a link to the published 970 page manual on how the GOP intends to take permanent control of the US.

        https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Didn’t they sorta try that 3 years ago?

        No, they tried to take out the House of Representatives. It’s clearly a totally different thing. \s