Plog Number 364
An old Custom
Hello Ploggers, how are you? I hope you are staying warm and enjoying your life. It certainly seems like it will be a frosty Christmas Eve. With temps down to 18❄️ today and going up to 50 in a few days, we are on a weather roller🎢 coaster. I hope that people don’t get sick. But I am truly awaiting the warmer temps. When I left work tonight I felt like my nose hairs instantly froze as I tried to walk and breathe at the same time. It sure made me walk a lot faster to my car, BUUURRRRRR!!
I did a Tiktok a few days ago about the custom that says that you won’t get prosecuted criminally if they are a sitting President. I wonder why this custom started. There must be another person in American history who was a criminal and US President at the same time. Nonetheless, it is not actually a law that I know of. It is certainly not in the Constitution. It is simply an Attorney General’s Opinion from the year 2000. It is based on facts from a 1973 Memorandum of Law regarding a grand jury investigation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Richard Nixons name was never mentioned. There was a Memo which argued both sides, ending in a conclusion. The Memorandum was from Robert G. Dixon Jr Assistant Attorney General, office of legal counsel. The O.L.C. Memo was entitled Amenability of the President, Vice President and other Civil Officers to Federal Criminal Prosecution while in Office. Dixon was Attorney General, office of legal counsel from 1973 to 1974, Office of Legal Counsel.
I haven’t read the Memo in its entirety but the holding is the following: The Indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unduly interfere with the ability of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned duties, and would thus violate the constitutional separation of powers. A grand jury should not be permitted to indict a sitting President even if all the subsequent proceedings were postponed until after the President left office. They reasoned that indictment alone would divert the Presidents attention by mounting his or her legal defense. Further they said that when they balanced differing concerns, that the indictment was the "weaker" of the two.
The author of the second Memorandum is Randolph D. Moss Assistant Attorney General Office of Legal Counsel. So as you can see the rule has only existed since 1972 during the Nixon years. The AG opinion in 2016 during the 45 era. Two Republican 👺crooks with the forethought to protect themselves legally for the crimes they were about to commit. A sort of pre crime blanket immunity. Now that makes sense. History, you have to know it! RECLAIM!
Comments