Donald Trump is in court and his long-awaited hush-money trial is under way in New York. This is the first time in US history that a former or current President faces a criminal trial.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-...rigin=BBCS_BBC

It may or may not be the first time a POTUS has committed the crime, but it is certainly the first time one got caught. Making history!

he gave 130k dollars, right?

I am quite sure that we can find "criminal charges" to throw against every surviving President. (Okay, let's give Jimmy Carter a pass.)

This will send a very clear message to every future Presidential candidate: "as soon as you leave office, you will be [endlessly, of course ...) indicted, threatened with thousands of years in prison, and forced to stand trial for every single thing that you ever did while in office." There are over 4,000 counties in America who can convene a Grand Jury, and even during your tenure we can very easily persuade all of them to hand down endless indictments. So that you will always know, every time you strive to make an official decision, exactly how many more hundreds of years your corpse will rot in prison thanks to every one of your political opponents who disagree with you. They will even update your situation in real time.

"Are you okay with that?" Well, as it turns out, neither was the US Supreme Court. Although at the time they were only asked to rule on civil matters, since a criminal charge had not yet come up.

However, the essential principle is the same. "We'd like you to volunteer to be President. However, the consequence of exercising the duties spelled out in Article 2 of the US Constitution is that you will rot in prison forever, no matter what you do. Because, no matter what you do, someone out there will find fault and bring charges." Any volunteers?

Functionally speaking, there is only one legal interpretation which matches the design of the Constitution: that "the(!) President" is like no other individual. He literally is(!) "Article 2." And he is tasked with sometimes-immediately making command decisions in lack of time and information. It is utterly impossible for him to perform his Office if he simply says: "I'm damned if I do, and damned if I don't. (I quit.)"

Kindly notice that I am not referring to "any particular Officeholder." I am referring to: "The Office itself."

If "the Officeholder" is now subject to "unlimited criminal liability" – and of course, if there is "criminal liability" then there will be "no limits" – then you are going to suddenly have a lot of problems holding elections, because nobody in his right mind would ever again volunteer to be on the ballot. (Maybe we can pick among these "Lawfare™ lawyers," and conscript them.)

Yes. He paid off an adult film star to prevent her from coming forward about their affair. The US voters may have voted differently in 2016 if they knew about the affair. Election interference. Trump very narrowly won the 2016 election.

Yes, and that was with NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC. New York Times, trying their best to help Hillary win, openly, blatantly.

Covering for her as she passed out several times on the campaign trail.

Covering up her lies about Russian collusion, the Steele dossier,...

The FBI and IRS being weaponized against him and conservatives.

As she:
Took crockery, furniture, artwork and other items from the White House, had to return and/or pay for them.

Said “what difference, at this point, does it make” about four brave people killed in Libya as a direct result of her failure to protect them on the anniversary of 9/11.

Totally ignored the structure and rules for the handling of sensitive national security information.

Amassed a personal fortune with “speaking fees” and payments from private sector political donors and foreign governments into transparent “foundations” in obvious exchange for future political favor.

Quite an accomplishment really. And four years of attacks dogs in the swamp like I haven't ever seen before. I doubt if anyone else could have stood up to it.

I like Jesus' saying, "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone".

"There's a sucker born every minute." P.T. Barnum

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I'm going to ask one more time. Moderators, are political posts now allowed on LQ again? You are allowing them. Why?

There have been a lot of anti-Biden posts here at LQ. Are you going to protest those posts too?
My initial post was a bit of information. A historical moment.
If the moderators are upset by news stories I'm sure they'll let us know.

If someone in the office of POTUS is then above the law for life, we are not electing a POTUS we are electing a KING. We fought a war to prevent having a king here before we were even properly a country, and won. Everyone is subject to the same laws. EVERYONE! There is no sane alternative that leaves us a free country.

Actually most of that was proven to be false. The claims were made, but most of it was just misinformation.

To which "sensitive national security information" do you refer exactly? I did not hear about her storing file boxes of top secret information in a bathroom accessible to the public, but I would be willing to check on that.

Pending an official answer: have you noticed WHERE this is? This is the Non-*NIX General area where we can discuss all KINDS of things less related to operating systems. This might well be the ONLY place on LQ where this discussion is allowed!

Political posts are making a comeback for a while now.
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...al-4175736053/

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-a-4175735870/

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...es-4175733659/

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...im-4175734353/

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...se-4175735501/

I completely agree. I think these types of posts should be allowed.
I'm very curious to see how the trial plays out. If the SCOTUS supports Trump in his bid for absolute immunity then he will be safe from prosecution.