Trump lawyer says president can do anything he wants
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s private attorney said Wednesday that the president could not be investigated or prosecuted as long as he is in the White House, even for shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
The claim of “temporary presidential immunity” from Trump’s private attorney William Consovoy came in response to a judge’s question that invoked the president’s hypothetical scenario. As a candidate in 2016, Trump said his political support was so strong he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not “lose any voters.”
The president’s lawyer was asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to block a subpoena for Trump’s private financial records from New York prosecutors investigating hush- money payments made before the 2016 election.
The judges seemed skeptical of the president’s sweeping claims of immunity not just from prosecution, but also from investigation. Judge Denny Chin pressed Consovoy about the hypothetical shooting on the streets of Manhattan.
“Local
authorities couldn’t investigate? They couldn’t do anything about it?” he asked, adding, “Nothing could be done? That is your position?”
“That is correct,” Consovoy answered, emphasizing that such immunity would apply only while Trump is in office.
The exchange came during an hourlong argument on Trump’s effort to fend off a subpoena to his longtime accounting firm from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Vance is seeking eight years of Trump’s tax returns from the firm, Mazars USA, among other documents.
Unlike past presidents and presidential nominees, Trump has refused to release any of his tax returns.
The case is a test of the sweep of presidential privilege and one of several battles over Trump’s records that began before the House opened its impeachment inquiry. As with other disputes, this one seems destined for the Supreme Court, which could hear the case as early as this term. Several legal experts said the assertion by Trump’s lawyer that the president would be immune from investigation, even in an extreme case such as murder, was a stretch and should not be validated by the courts.
But it was not surprising. That is the logical progression of the argument the president’s attorneys have been making in court filings, they said.
“This had always been where the argument led, but now that it’s out in the open, hopefully everyone understands just how dangerous it is,” said Steve Vladeck, a University of Texas at Austin law professor.
Trump’s argument could “easily allow the president to get away with major crimes. It’s not enough to say that they could investigate after he leaves office, since evidence can disappear or spoil if it isn’t collected promptly,” said Cornell Law School professor Josh Chafetz.
Trump’s i mmunity claim, the experts said, extends not only to himself, but also to his business, the Trump Organization.
Consovoy said in court Wednesday that the president objects to the entire subpoena, not just the request for Trump’s tax records, because the company is “wholly owned by the president and they do hold his personal records.”