An attorney for Donald Trump argued in court Tuesday that a president can order the assassination of his political opponents and not face prosecution unless he is convicted by the Senate in an impeachment trial.
Trump lawyer John Sauer, made the stunning admission while being questioned by D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Florence Pan on a series of hypothetical scenarios about the limits of presidential immunity.
“Could a president order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival? That’s an official act, an order to Seal Team Six,” Pan asked.
“He would have to be and would speedily be, you know, uh, impeached and convicted before the criminal prosecution–,” Sauer answered.
“But there would be no criminal prosecution, no criminal liability for that?” Pan asked.
Sauer dodged the question.
‘I asked you a yes, no, yes or no question. Could a president who ordered Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival, who was not impeached, would he be subject to criminal prosecution,” Pan asked again.
“If he were impeached and convicted first,” Sauer answered.
The three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is hearing arguments over whether Trump’s federal election subversion case should be dismissed.
In a filing last month, Trump’s attorneys say the case should be dismissed because actions he allegedly took while in office “constitute quintessential presidential acts” and “fell within his official duties.”
Trump’s legal team also argued that he wasn’t convicted by the Senate in his impeachment trial in 2021, and a prosecution in the election subversion case would violate his protections against double jeopardy, according to CBS News.
However, the US Constitution says impeachment is a political process, not criminal.
Several Republicans senators who opposed Trump’s conviction in the senate after Jan. 6 argued that his punishment for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election should be decided by the courts, not Congress.
