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,

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Oh wow, what a big fucking surprise. Trump’s team is now arguing he can’t be charged because he wasn’t impeached. Yet 4 years ago, the cowards in the GOP said they couldn’t impeach him and it was up to the courts to take responsibility for punishing Trump.

    Who could have guessed that these slimy fucks would do that? Everyone?

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Also, if the court sides with Trump, and he gets impeached again, the GOP will use the exact same excuse and ignore this ruling entirely and not convict.

  • 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

        • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative Administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025. Welcome to the mission. By opening this book, you are now a part of it

          Fuck.

          • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            This is the plan created by the most influential members of the GOP, the most influential organizations on them, and the most influential individuals on them. Over 50 of the most important organizations to the GOP published this thing. If you read it there are whole paragraphs that have been, almost verbatim, said by Trump, and other GOP members, since it’s publishing. This is their schematic to build a modern fascist state. They aren’t hiding it. This isn’t a document they are passing around in tight circles, hiding it from outsiders. This is a publicly posted manifest on their plans to take control of the US government, dismantle the checks and balances of power, and take complete control.

            They even acknowledge that methods they intend to use are legally dubious, then acknowledge that that is why they stacked the USSC.

            • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              That’s also why they stockpile guns and ammo. They know that if or when they seize power there is going to be a justified popular uprising against them.

              • nomous@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I tell people as often as I can, especially trans and PoC friends: start meeting like-minded people now, get some basic medic training (field medics really just need to stabilize people), get a gun or two (a long one and a short one) and learn how to use them. This isn’t a joke, the time is now, the police will not protect us and the world will simply watch as the U.S. sinks into the weird Christian-fascist-corporatism that seems to be growing.

            • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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              11 months ago

              What I’m meaning to illustrate is that this reads like “The Protocols” in that it seems to be filled with fear mongering of a deep state that the world needs to be protected from. Promoting a call to arms for conservative voters.

              • monotremata@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                I see. I was thrown because the “Protocols” took the form of a fake leaked document revealing a fictitious plan for world domination, claiming to be written by Jewish elders, but actually written by an antisemitic propagandist. So given that this is also a plan for world domination and is horrifying those who read it, it seemed like you might be suggesting it was a fake created by left-wingers to discredit the right. Sadly, it’s all too real, and it’s not leaked–it’s all out in the open for those who bother to look.

                • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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                  11 months ago

                  Yeah, I can absolutely understand the confusion. I made the comment while I’m at work and was trying to be concise instead of making my comparison perfectly clear.

      • 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

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    11 months ago

    Hmm sounds like the whole “balance of power in the 3 branches of government” is being completely ignored by this dumb lawyer.

    The executive branch must be held accountable by more than just the Senate… Otherwise there might as well only be 2 branches of power and the justice system would fall under the umbrella of the executive branch.

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      11 months ago

      It’s also being ignored by SCOTUS, so… Doesn’t seem the government cares about corruption what so ever.

  • Taako_Tuesday
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    11 months ago

    This is basically trump arguing for the return of the Divine Right of Kings

    • TacoThrash3r@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      We have a speaker of the house that said he was ordained by God to be Moses for Republicans sooo I guess you’re not too far off

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    11 months ago

    If he has to be impeached and convicted by the Senate then his lawyers would argue that he can’t be prosecuted afterward because of the double jeopardy clause. This would completely nullify the constitution and the United States of America would cease to exist as we know it. That’s the Republican endgame.

    • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Putting aside the whole Republican duplicity thing, I don’t think this is double jeopardy.

      Impeachment is, in essence, a political procedure to remove someone from office. There doesn’t need to even be a crime (see Biden’s impeachment for an example).

      So assuming for a moment that a president was impeached, that trial is to remove him from office, not to try him for a crime.

      And even then, impeachment trials are civil where there is no jeopardy.

  • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    I look forward to how SCOTUS Bush v Gore’ing this, granting Trump immunity, and saying “this is not a precedent”.