That statement is actually encouraging as it veers towards a centrist view. He’s actually taking a more liberal position on this than some of Obama’s WH attorneys (not Bob Bauer though). What he’s saying if I read this right is that a POTUS can be investigated and I think that would also extend to getting testimony by interview or subpoena. A President can also be named an un-indicted co-conspirator and even indicted. The issue is that the trial cannot begin until after he leaves office.
I truly hope your optimism is warranted. Let’s see how Donnie Tweets about it…
I’m not taking this guy at face value. Not for a second. No reason to. Every reason not to.
First, I’m not sure I believe him. But second, I think he’s setting a trap. There are statutes of limitations, witnesses forget things, witnesses get intimidated or pardoned, witnesses die. And if there’s a conspiracy including someone else who becomes president you’re talking 10,12 years.
The problem is that he also says, at least in 1998, that the President has full jurisdiction over any investigation of himself. He has effectively said that the President can absolutely investigate himself and find that he has done nothing wrong, but if he did find that he did something wrong, he couldn’t charge himself with any crimes until the next guy comes along. Because there is nothing wrong with a situation where the successor attempts to charge the predecessor with crimes… or something.
None of this is a logical construction. He wants to say that the President isn’t immune to the law, but effectively says just that. They need to get him to commit to recuse.
Hmm would this then be setting up Congress to do it’s job of impeachment? And why in the situation we are in where there is one political party with the WH and both chambers be agreeable to impeach their own Party’s President? Their getting what they want from him, and as @paulw stated their are statutes of limitations.
This would only be viable if we had a Congress that worked together instead of what we’ve got.
Kavanaugh prepared this answer against the belief that this issue poses the greatest threat to his own ascension to the Court. He deliberately went out of his way to seem reasonable on this topic, although it seems clear to me that this comment means he thinks a president cannot be indicted or tried while in office. I.e.: a president is above the law so long as politics are on his side.
Kavanaugh is a royalist. He thinks the POTUS is the law, and every statement of his that I’ve read suggests further that he will have no objection to Trump pardoning himself and pardoning convicted associates to undermine a RICO-style criminal investigation.