I’m not wondering about the political implications of that now infamous OLC (Office of Legal Counsel to the Dept of Justice) meme saying sitting Presidents can’t be indicted. Nor am I wondering about the now myriad questions flying about FORMER presidents being indicted, as posited by the clown car legal team of the Maralago Man.
What I’m saying is there is a clear line in thinking about Presidents of the United States as ‘untouchable’ by the Law which all others in the nation must abide by or face the consequences of fines and or incarceration; and the Right of Kings to be seen as ‘above the law’.
Just an fyi, the 25th Amendment clearly gives any sitting president the ability to ‘step away’ and allow the Vice President to become ‘Acting President’ for any reason the president wants to give — the language is quite vague (as it is in many parts of the Constitution).
25th Amendment, Section 3: Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Clearly I do not buy into the reasoning of the 2000 OLC Memo as the 25th, Section 3 offers an answer to the assertion in the Headnote of the Memorandum:
Date of Issuance: Monday, October 16, 2000 Headnotes: The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.
Attachment: op-olc-v024-p0222_0.pdf
That’s all. This has been running through my mind for some time, and just today I realized that I finally had a way to encapsulate my thinking on the issue with a short meme. So I did.
Thoughts?