Donald Trump Hearing: Former President’s Attorney Argues He’s Immune From Prosecution — Perhaps Even If He Orders Assassination Of Political Rival

deadline.com:

Former President Donald Trump was in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to attend a hearing on whether he is immune from prosecution for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

As his attorney John Sauer argued before a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, media coverage quickly zeroed in on an exchange he had over a series of hypotheticals.

Judge Florence Pan at one point told him, “Could a president order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival, who was not impeached.

Would he be subject to criminal prosecution?” “If he were impeached and convicted first,” Sauer said. “So you answer is, no,” Pan said. “My answer is a qualified yes,” Sauer said. “There’s a political process that would have to occur under our infrastructure, under our Constitution, which require impeachment and conviction by the Senate in these exceptional cases.” Pan, though, continued to press him on the point, arguing that he was essentially saying that no, a president could not be prosecuted, while Sauer argued that it was a “qualified yes,” in that he would first have to be impeached and convicted in Congress.