“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?” Donald gave this memorable sentence Trump 2016 by himself before he was elected American President. He brought to the point in a drastic way how all the atrocities that he affords and that would probably mean the end of a career for most other politicians seem to rebound on him. About a year ago, the scenario of such a crime was played out in a New York courtroom. It was not about the question of whether Trump’s hypothetical shot would cost voters, but about any legal consequences. And Trump’s lawyer argued: As long as his client is president, he enjoys complete immunity. This applies to everything he did before and during his time in the White House, including murder. The judge asked if that meant that local authorities were completely hands-tied and they couldn’t even investigate Trump. “That’s correct,” said the lawyer.
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Trump’s representatives in court have asserted this immunity argument over and over again in recent years. It is by no means out of thin air. For decades, the US Department of Justice has mandated that the incumbent president not be charged or prosecuted. That would hinder him in his work and is therefore unconstitutional. Special investigator Robert Mueller cited this last year as a reason why, following his investigations into Russian interference in the US elections in 2016, he would not recommend charges against Trump for obstruction of justice.
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