{"id":389496,"date":"2018-12-17T19:58:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T18:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trump-can-and-should-be-indicted\/"},"modified":"2018-12-17T19:58:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T18:58:08","slug":"trump-can-and-should-be-indicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trump-can-and-should-be-indicted\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Can and Should Be Indicted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"series-card row\">\n<div class=\"series-image small-4 columns\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/series\/human-rights-and-global-wrongs\/\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2018_0129n-hrgw-200x113.jpg\" class=\"attachment-hd_thumbnail size-hd_thumbnail\" alt=\"Human Rights and Global Wrongs\" srcset=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2018_0129n-hrgw-200x113.jpg 200w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2018_0129n-hrgw-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\"\/><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>As evidence of law breaking by Donald Trump continues to emerge, commentators are speculating about whether a sitting president can be indicted. The Department of Justice has twice opined in the negative \u2014 during both the Nixon and Clinton administrations. But nothing in the Constitution would prevent Trump from being criminally indicted while he occupies the Oval Office.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is apparently implicated in at least three federal criminal investigations. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is <span><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/5453418\/Mueller-Cohen-filing.pdf\">examining violations<\/a><\/span> of campaign finance laws in connection with Trump Tower Moscow. Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York <span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/sdny-cohen.pdf\">have documented campaign finance violations<\/a><\/span> stemming from hush money paid to Trump\u2019s alleged paramours in order to influence the presidential election. And the New York US attorney\u2019s office <span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455\">is analyzing<\/a><\/span> whether Trump\u2019s inaugural committee received illegal payments for presidential access and policy influence.<\/p>\n<p>State lawsuits and investigations also spell legal peril for Trump. Attorneys general in Maryland and Washington, DC, have <span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/12\/04\/politics\/dc-maryland-trump-subpoenas\/index.html\">issued subpoenas<\/a><\/span> in a lawsuit alleging the Trump Organization\u2019s business dealings violated the Emoluments Clause. Located in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, the clause prohibits US officials from receiving anything of value from foreign governments, including foreign government-owned businesses, without the approval of Congress. <\/p>\n<p>And New York officials are <span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/409550-new-york-state-tax-department-reviewing-trump-fraud-allegations\">reviewing possible income tax fraud<\/a><\/span> by Trump and the Trump Foundation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"banner_wrapper\" style=\"\">\n<div id=\"banner-247294\" class=\"banner subscribe-banner  banner-247294 bottom vert custom-banners-theme-default_style\" style=\"\"><a class=\"custom_banners_big_link\" href=\"#\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"banner_caption\" style=\"\">\n<div class=\"banner_caption_inner\">\n<div class=\"banner_caption_text\" style=\"\">\n<p><strong>Don&#8217;t miss a beat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Moreover, Trump\u2019s former lawyer Michael Cohen; longtime Trump ally David Pecker, head of American Media Inc.; and Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, are <span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/cohen-pecker-and-weisselberg-the-men-with-trumps-secrets-work-for-the-feds-now\">providing information to Mueller<\/a><\/span> that could incriminate the president.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Sitting President Can Be Indicted<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Constitution <span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articleii\">provides for impeachment<\/a><\/span> of high government officials for treason, bribery, or other high crimes&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/trump-can-and-should-be-indicted\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As evidence of law breaking by Donald Trump continues to emerge, commentators are speculating about whether a sitting president can be indicted. The Department of Justice has twice opined in the negative \u2014 during both the Nixon and Clinton administrations. But nothing in the Constitution would prevent Trump from being criminally indicted while he occupies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-389496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}