CNN: 'Judge Asks if a President Can Order SEAL Team 6 To Assassinate a Rival. Hear Trump's Lawyer Respond'

Source:CNN- Donald Trump is the reason why we have president's and not king's.

"Former President Donald Trump is in Washington, DC, for a US Circuit Court of Appeals hearing after a lower-court ruling rejected his claims of immunity in special counsel Jack Smith's 2020 election subversion case. Trump is seeking to have the federal charges against him dismissed." 

From CNN

"Trump attorney D. John Sauer argued that presidential immunity means that a president cannot be prosecuted for any actions that fall under his presidential duties — unless the House first votes to impeach him and the Senate then convicts him.

Judge Florence Y. Pan, an appointee of President Biden, asked Sauer if a president could be criminally prosecuted if he ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival. Such a scenario — ordering the military to do something — would fall under presidential duties. But having a rival murdered would also be a clear violation of the law.

Sauer said the Justice Department could only charge the president for giving such an order if the Senate votes to convict him first. Pan also asked him whether a president could sell pardons or nuclear secrets without being prosecuted. Sauer responded similarly." 

From The Washington Post

“I think it is paradoxical to say his constitutional duty to take care that laws are faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal law,” said another judge, Karen Henderson, who was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush.

Sauer argued that allowing prosecutions without impeachment would have raised the risk of former President George W. Bush being charged for giving false information to Congress leading to the war in Iraq, and Barack Obama being charged for authorizing drone strikes that killed US citizens abroad.

“To authorize the prosecution of a president on official actions would open a Pandora’s box in which this nation would never recover,” Sauer said."

From Bloomberg Law

Temidayo Aganga-Williams talking about Donald Trump's lawyer John Sauer: "I think he's really making the argument for Jack Smith. This is exactly what Jack Smith has been worrying about: are we a country of president's, or a country of king's? And I think what Trump's lawyer effectively argued is that we are a country of king's.That the President can act as he wants, as he chooses, that we can have violence. You know, we had violence on January 6, he's saying that the President could take it a lot further. Himself could direct that violence openly using official government sources and that's fine. He establishes how dangerous this presidential immunity argument is."

I think pretty much everyone whose not in the MAGA movement in America, (which is about 70% of the country) has predicted that Donald Trump would not lose his presidential immunity claim at the appeals court. 

I think the only question here is how big of a loss would it be. Would it be 2-1, with perhaps Judge Karen Henderson voting no and expressing a strong dissent to the decision. Would she vote no, but without giving an official dissent to the decision. Or would it be a strong 3-0 decision against the former President, with a strong, unified opinion against the former President's immunity claim, giving the Supreme Court some cover here and raising the possibility that they wouldn't even take Donald Trump's appeal here, because no new ground had been raised here and they know he would definitely lose. But perhaps the Trump's Justices don't want to make that official decision against him.

Based on Judge Henderson's questioning of Donald Trump's lawyer John Sauer, I think we're looking at a strong 3-0 decision against the former President (not former King) and they'll have a strong, unified opinion against the former President's presidential immunity claim. But as I keep saying, I'm not a lawyer.

Just to correct the record on something that John Sauer said: his client Donald J. Trump, is not being prosecuted for official acts that he did when he was President. He's being prosecuted for criminal acts that Special Counsel Jack Smith believed he committed when he was President. As well as criminal acts that Jack Smith believes he committed since leaving the presidency.  

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