President Donald Trump’s private attorney said Wednesday that the president could not be investigated or prosecuted as long as he is in the White House, even for shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
The claim of “temporary presidential immunity” from Trump’s private attorney William Consovoy came in court in response to a judge’s question that invoked the president’s own hypothetical scenario. As a candidate in 2016, Trump said his political support was so strong he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not “lose any voters.”
The president’s lawyer was asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to block a subpoena for Trump’s private financial records from New York prosecutors investigating hush-money payments made before the 2016 election. The judges seemed skeptical of the president’s sweeping claims of immunity not just from prosecution, but also from investigation.
Judge Denny Chin pressed Consovoy about the hypothetical shooting on the streets of Manhattan.
“Local authorities couldn’t investigate? They couldn’t do anything about it?” he asked, adding, “Nothing could be done? That is your position?”
“That is correct,” Consovoy answered, emphasizing that such immunity would apply only while Trump is in office.
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Ann E. Marimow, Jonathan O’Connell
{Matzav.com}
