On top of that, a president also doesn’t have a general immunity to criminal law. The Supreme Court dispute a bit back was over a limited matter of whether a president could be subject to criminal law for acts of the government that he orders in some cases.
If Trump pulls out a pistol and murders someone, he’s subject to criminal law for that.
It sounds like the act in question wasn’t an official action from the government, but something that he did while campaigning.
On top of that, he wasn’t even president at the time anyway.
That being said, IIRC the question of whether a president can pardon himself for federal crimes is still open, and in any case it’s not controversial that he could use the Nixon trick where he resigns and then has the vice president or whoever replaces him pardon him, if we’re talking federal criminal law.
Won’t this just be thrown out? I thought you couldn’t sue the sitting president
Yes you can and there is precedent. Pretty sure Clinton was sued a few times while in office. You can’t currently be prosecuted while in office tho.
Criminal versus civil. These are civil suits for money.
That said, Pam Bondi is probably putting the to DOJ lawyers on this as we speak, to intervene and claim civil suits should also be barred.
On top of that, a president also doesn’t have a general immunity to criminal law. The Supreme Court dispute a bit back was over a limited matter of whether a president could be subject to criminal law for acts of the government that he orders in some cases.
If Trump pulls out a pistol and murders someone, he’s subject to criminal law for that.
It sounds like the act in question wasn’t an official action from the government, but something that he did while campaigning.
On top of that, he wasn’t even president at the time anyway.
That being said, IIRC the question of whether a president can pardon himself for federal crimes is still open, and in any case it’s not controversial that he could use the Nixon trick where he resigns and then has the vice president or whoever replaces him pardon him, if we’re talking federal criminal law.