The panel of judges examining Donald Trump’s argument that he can’t be prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election raised the concerns that could come if an American president is granted absolute presidential immunity. Judge Florence Pan while listening to arguments from Donald Trump’s legal team posed this question to the former president’s lawyer: “Could a president order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival? That is an official act, an order to SEAL Team Six?” The judge also asked that would the US president be still immune from prosecution if, hypothetically speaking, they sold military secrets to foreign adversaries or peddled pardons to criminals.
Trump’s lawyer John Sauer then insisted that the political process of impeachment would have to be initiated first in order to prosecute the president. “He would have to be, and would speedily be impeached and convicted before the criminal prosecution,” Sauer said. “I asked you a yes or no question,” the judge said in response. “If he were impeached and convicted first,” Sauer replied. He also said that without an impeachment the US supreme court held that a president’s official acts are never reviewable by the courts.
Trump has contended that he is immune to federal charges of conspiring to interfere in the 2020 election because his actions took place while he was president. He attended the hearing. He was impeached by the US house of Representatives but later acquitted in US house of Senate when allegations were raised that he incited the Capitol attack on january 6, 2021.
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