Mueller says he could not charge Trump as Congress weighs impeachment
"Mueller said Justice Department policy prevented him from bringing charges against a sitting president or filing sealed charges, telling reporters it was 'not an option we would consider.'"
So this means the U.S. President can't be charged for crimes discovered during his or her term, even if he or she gets impeached. Wow. So much for the rule of law.
Yes, impeachment remains an effective tool for removing someone from elected office once that person is deemed to be unfit for that office. Yet it is not part of the criminal justice system. It is a political tool, for a political purpose. A person who has been deemed to have committed a crime should have to go through the criminal justice system; no one should be above the law. By saying that the political system is the only way to act against a sitting U.S. President who may have broken the law is akin to saying that the U.S. President is above the criminal justice system; the only way he or she can ever be made to answer under the criminal justice system is to impeach, and then indict. Impeachment itself does not carry the same consequences as indictment; a U.S. President that has been impeached does not end up in prison.
So there was evidence that Trump broke the law, but the criminal justice system does not apply to him while he is in office. Charges cannot be filed and sealed too, which effectively means the findings of this same investigation will not results in charges against him even if he gets impeached. The only way to bring him to justice is to impeach him, and then conduct another investigation to indict him. Hopefully, the evidence found in Mueller's investigation can be used as supporting evidence in that subsequent investigation, if it ever happens.
The U.S. has always tried to sell itself as the shining example of a country adhering to the rule of law. Right now, it just looks more and more like a banana republic.
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