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The Sitting U.S. President Is “Above the Law”

The Sitting U.S. President Is “Above the Law”

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 11:43 am by Kermit Zarley

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The Sitting U.S. President Is “Above the Law” 2023-04-15T11:43:19-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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Donald Trump Indicted at Manhattan Criminal Courthouse April 4, 2023. (Timothy A. Clary. Pool Photo via AP)

How so? It’s all about that obscure, 1973 memorandum drafted by the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice that occurred in response to the Watergate affair, in which President Richard Nixon resigned his office. Special counsel Robert Mueller had cited this memo in his report investigating alleged Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election in which Russian operatives supposedly tried to prevent former Secretary of State and First Lady Hilary Clinton from defeating Donald Trump. Mueller refused to indict Trump for ten possible obstruction of justice charges merely on the basis of that memo. Yet, it had never been challenged in the U.S. court system. When Mueller’s report was made public, I thought he would have known that memo in advance when the U.S. Congress asked him to take that job and that he should have told Congress he would not do so unless that memo was abolished. Why?

Mueller cited the memo in his report and stated in it, “charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider.” Also due to that memo, Mueller says in the report, “We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.” Mueller adds in the report that if his investigative team had thought President Trump did not commit a crime, they would have said so in the report. On the other hand, Trump claimed that Mueller’s report exonerated him since it did not indict him, which is clearly false because of this last statement above.

Then, what does the OLC’s 1973 memo say? This memorandum states that prosecuting a sitting president would “unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.” That clearly places the president of the United States of America “above the law.” It also affirms what Donald Trump said early during his 2015-2016 presidential campaign. At a campaign stop on January 23, 2016, at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, Trump boasted to the crowd, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” Yeah, Trump could have done that as president according to the Office of Legal Counsel and gotten away with it.

However, in the year 2000, the Office of Legal Counsel revisited this 1973 memo and added to it, “While the impeachment process might also, of course, hinder the President’s performance of his duties, the process may be initiated and maintained only by politically accountable legislative officials.” That provides an escape mechanism from placing the president above the law. But it puts the responsibility of performing the president’s duties upon the whole Congress, which the legislative body was not willing to do even though the House did impeach President Trump twice.

During Republican President Donald Trump’s term in office, Republican Mitch McConnell was leader of the U.S. Senate. On the second impeachment of Trump, McConnell refused to cast his vote for impeachment even though he had declared unequivocally that Trump had been guilty of causing the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. And his retort was that Trump would be held liable for his criminal behavior as president when he exited the White House.

That is now what is playing out in several U.S. courts, in Georgia, Washington D.C., and multiple cases in New York City. Donald Trump may no longer be Teflon Don, who has never suffered the consequences of what appears to be a long history of lawlessness. Thus, the president is above the law while he or she is president, but after that president leaves the Oval Office, she or he is no long above the law and therefore may be prosecuted for crimes committed while president. Weird!

The Bible’s proverb has already proven true about Donald Trump which appears on the front cover of my book, Bible Predicts Trump Fall. It reads, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). If Trump is found guilty of crimes, either committed while president or after, this proverb will be even more true of him.

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