A legal theory suggests that 45th President Donald Trump cannot be convicted of many of the charges against him, particularly those related to his claims about the 2020 election, because he was not first impeached by Congress and convicted in the Senate in his position as President of the United States.
The legal theory, published by the National Constitutional Law Union (NCLU), cites recent court decisions to assert that the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs and Bruen decisions allow for Trump and his lawyers to argue that all actions a president takes while in office must be considered legal unless the chief executive is successfully impeached.
According to NCLU, the legal theory essentially posits, “Could George Washington have been prosecuted if he took similar actions and if the relevant statutes existed while he was President?” The non-profit social welfare organization answers, “If the answer is ‘no,’ then it is equally improper to prosecute Mr. Trump under these indictments, given that Bruen and Dobbs mandate that all constitutional provisions be applied in accordance with their fixed meaning in 1787-1789.”
NCLU Executive Director Gavin Wax told Valiant News the failed attempt to impeach Trump after he left office in 2021 would strengthen the legal theory. “His acquittals only strengthen this case,” said Wax, adding that the legal theory was “articulated in a vacuum.”
Wax posted the legal theory to X, formerly Twitter, including a link to the 17-page legal memorandum. Wax also called it “the best legal strategy” for Trump, and suggested it will “set precedent to prevent this nonsense from happening again in the future.”
All the legal cases against Donald Trump should fail under the principle that a President cannot be held liable in any way for an action he took while in office unless he is first convicted of impeachment. @NCLU_ORG's legal strategy memo is out now: https://t.co/i5nrbuIXkp
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) August 14, 2023
In addition to the new federal charges recently introduced by special counsel Jack Smith, the former president was also charged by a Democratic prosecutor in Georgia with claims that he engaged in racketeering and other crimes when contesting the results of the 2020 election.
Trump continues to poll first for the Republican nomination, and more than half of Republicans in the key primary state of New Hampshire said they would vote for the former president even if he were convicted on some or all of the charges against him. Many also said they would support Trump’s presidential bid if he were in prison.
