News on Youtube Dec 29 2018

"America is great because she is good.

If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great," wrote French political

scientist Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835 book, "Democracy in America".

The USA, he believed, offered equality that was not seen in other nations.

The founding fathers of the U.S. had created a form of ruling that was not able to be tyrannical,

that was chosen by the people and served the people, and if it failed to do so it would

be removed.

This America was a long way from absolute monarchies and from authoritarian government

presided over by powerful dictators.

It was supposed to embody what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the U.S Declaration of Independence,

that, "all men are created equal."

With that in mind, welcome to this episode of the Infographics Show, Can a U.S. President

Go to Jail?

If all men are created equal, perhaps that means that all men should be treated as equals

when it comes to matters of justice.

That's why there are laws, and no people in a democracy should be immune to punishment.

We could argue that the scales of justice do seem to be tipped in favor of those that

have more money, to avoid close scrutiny by law enforcement or to hire brilliant legal

teams to perhaps undo wrongdoings.

Notwithstanding the sometimes mindboggling chicanery a very wealthy person might employ

to get them out of trouble, everyone in the USA should be answerable to the same laws.

This must mean an American president can surely go to jail, or prison.

Just so you know, jail and prison are sometimes interchangeable words, but in the USA, jail

is usually the place you go to for a short stint before you have a court hearing or you're

just serving a very short sentence.

Prison is the place you go to after you've been convicted of a crime.

Ok, so first of all, a "What If" question.

What if a U.S. President lost his mind and ran out of the White House stark naked and

then started plunging a recently-procured White House kitchen knife into astounded tourists?

Could that President be charged and convicted of a number of crimes, say, attempted murder,

murder, and perhaps public indecency.

It's not all that simple.

When the writers of the constitution drafted their timeless piece, they had to think of

what would happen if a president went off the rails and committed a crime, or crimes.

Such wrongdoing, they said, might be "Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and misdemeanors."

If that should happen, they said, first there would be impeachment by the House of Representatives

and then it would be up to the Senate to convict the wrongdoer.

What this could mean is while the president is still in power, he can't be indicted,

meaning the cops couldn't just turn up outside the White House, taser the wayward leader,

and detain him in one the city's finest jails until he had his day in court.

He first would have to be impeached and then removed from office.

That would take some time.

After he has been removed, according to the constitution, he, or she, will "be liable

and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law."

But it is complicated.

If we look at the crime we described, it is perhaps too unbelievable to even discuss.

But would he be prosecuted if it happened?

One professor at Yale wrote this, "The framers implicitly immunized a sitting president from

ordinary criminal prosecution."

So again, he would have to be impeached first.

We don't really know what would happen in this case; perhaps an assumed enemy would

be blamed for somehow being able to control the mind of the president.

We can safely say the President would be removed from active duties, although somewhere along

the proceedings the public would be told something nefarious had happened.

He'd probably be judged insane as a result of dark outside influences.

We really don't know, and unfortunately no sources online have discussed the possibility

of such a heinous crime.

But this is an extreme case, so let's look at something more down-to-Earth.

If we look at what was called high crime, that's different.

High crimes are usually things like perjury, bribery, abuse of power.

These things we certainly can imagine a president doing.

According to U.S. legal scholar, Ronald Rotunda, if the President committed one of these high

crimes, he'd face the law.

Rotunda wrote, while investigating former President Clinton, "It is proper, constitutional,

and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts

that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president's official duties.

In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law."

Still, others disagree.

Time magazine in 2018 featured a story written by the former principal lawyer for Vice President

Spiro Agnew.

He wrote, "An imperial Presidency was the worst fear of the Founders."

As we said, the founders knew tyranny was always bound to happen when one person, or

group, had too much power and attendant impunity.

The constitution had to preclude that this tyranny, or corruption, never could happen.

The writer states again that first the president would have to be impeached, then removed,

and he would then possibly face prison.

It's just never happened.

The Atlantic also wrote a story in 2018, asking if a sitting president could be indicted.

That writer said there was no clear answer.

He decided to ask the question to six well-known legal scholars, regarding if a sitting president

could be indicted.

Four answered.

Three said no and one said yes.

The writer turned to academics, and many answers came back, some saying that indicting a president

would just be too disruptive.

Another disagreed, saying the constitution was written so that such a disruption, when

needed, could occur.

Another said that no expert can answer the question, stating that one could only have

an opinion on this matter.

There is no airtight legal framework that can guarantee an answer.

We apologize that we can't ascertain a clear answer to the question in this show, but it

seems there is nobody out there who knows.

The constitution was written so that a president could face the law as you and I do, but while

in office it would seem that indicting a president would be very hard to do.

That seems wrong to some, because if the founders had wanted to give immunity to presidents,

that would have explicitly been written into the constitution.

Perhaps the constitution should have some small print where it says, "All men are

created equal."

In that small print we can read, "Subject to change without notice.

Not applicable outside of warranty."

Is that too cynical?

What do you think about all this?

Tell us in the comments.

Also, be sure to check out our other show The President's Escape Plan If The US Is Attacked.

Thanks for watching, and as always, don't forget to like, share and subscribe.

See you next time.