“Regarding Donald Trump’s immunity, would that apply to being charged for committing sexual crimes with juveniles prior to his presidency?” — Charlotte
Hi Charlotte,
No, presidential immunity only applies to Trump’s time in office. Even then, it’s not a total immunity covering every possible criminal act he may commit while in office; the Supreme Court hasn’t said exactly how expansive it is.
But to the point of your question, presidential immunity doesn’t cover any crimes Trump may have committed while out of office.
In the meantime, it’s also worth keeping in mind that the Justice Department has a longstanding policy against prosecuting sitting presidents — not that such a policy is needed to stop this DOJ under Attorney General Pam Bondi’s leadership from taking any action against this president.
A related practical consideration is that if there is a federal criminal case to be made against Trump, not only wouldn’t it be brought while he’s in office, but it likely wouldn’t be developed during that time, either. That is, if federal agents and prosecutors encounter the sort of credible leads they’d otherwise pursue against a regular person, it’s hard to imagine a probe being carried out while Trump is in office.
On that note, after the latest revelations and omissions about the Jeffrey Epstein files, Democrats this week demanded answers from Bondi about whether the DOJ is actively investigating any allegations of sexual abuse against the president. Any Republican response to that Democratic demand would come from an attorney general who has referred to DOJ attorneys as “his” (that is, Trump’s) lawyers and who turned to bragging about the stock market while under Epstein-related questioning at a recent congressional hearing.
In a statement on the release of Epstein files last month, the DOJ said that some of the documents “contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
Recommended
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
Latest Post
Vice President JD Vance enters U.S.-Iran talks with new scheduled meeting
