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Other words, if courts were to agree with that analysis, that would preclude state attorneys general as well as federal prosecutors from return an indictment. so in other words the state attorney general is not bound by the rule not to indict the president, but it would obviously appear before a court and that court may say it doesn t matter who did it, it s not constitutional. yeah, that s exactly right and also i think one other thing worth pointing out, the way prosecutors work is they re not looking for trap doors in policies. they are trying to figure out what the law is, what the facts and the evidence are and what the law allows. so, if a state attorney general looking at this on the merits concludes in their office that the olc got it right, that it would be unconstitutional to indict a sitting president, they re not going to go forward just because they re not bound by the olc opinion. on the other hand, if they in good faith looked at the issues and concluded that they th ....
Is still in office, and it s generally understood that the special counsel has to follow department of justice guidelines but it s also true that there are trap doors in those doj guidelines. trap doors that might mean actually there is a way to indict a sitting president. quote, should the special counsel conclude that the extraordinary circumstances of any particular decision would render compliance inappropriate, he or she may consult directly with the attorney general. so, if robert mueller feels the state of the russia investigation rises to the level of extraordinary circumstances, he could in theory at least ask deputy attorney general rod rosenstein for a hall pass to ignore that olc memo about not indicting a sitting president and, by the way, that s not the only trap door. there s another one snack dab on the office of legal counsel s home page. ....
Amount to an incapacitation. in plain english, please do not indict a sitting president. that was the opinion of the department of justice in 1973. 27 years later in the year 2000, the same office of legal counsel doubled down on that opinion. quote, the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting president would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions. the question of whether a serving president can be indicted came up again this week with president trump playing an unindicted role in a pair of felonies to which his former personal lawyer, michael cohen, pled guilty. the president s lawyers would have you believe that the olc s opinion is a hard and fast rule and that, therefore, the special counsel robert mueller cannot indict president trump while he ....
Next. joining us now is adam liptack, court reporter for the new york times and barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. thank you for being with us on a friday night. adam, let me just start with you. let me ask you about the gravity of what happened this week because for those of us who are in it all the time and covering it, it does feel like something different happened here, something about the way we have to look at and refer to and treat this presidency. we ve crossed a significant step here. the president s former lawyer said the president directed him to commit campaign finance violations in order to influence an election, to say nothing of the fact that the concerned affairs with playboy models and porn stars. it s an extraordinary thing to have your lawyer say that and there is next step it would be an indictment of the client directing the lawyer to do these acts. barbara, the legal liability ....
i think the tagline for the trump administration is i don t think we know yet. joyce, always great to see you. thank you for helping us get through it. joyce vance is a former u.s. attorney. much more to get to at the end of this incredible week of news. still ahead, the question just what may have changed in the last few days to change the way that prosecutors may confront the president. we ve got that and much more ahead. stay with us. a hotel can make or break a trip. and at expedia, we don t think you should be rushed into booking one. that s why we created expedia s add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia. ....