Giuliani Claims President Couldn't Be Indicted for Murder

In an incredible escalation of Team Trump's absurd argument that the Constitution literally sets the president above the law, Donald Trump's lawyer and bestie Rudy Giuliani — who was once the third-highest ranking member of Reagan's Justice Department — claimed that Trump could not be indicted for murder even if he had shot James Comey instead of just firing him.

S.V. Date at the Huffington Post reports:

"In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted," Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost Sunday, claiming a president's constitutional powers are that broad. "I don't know how you can indict while he's in office. No matter what it is."

Giuliani said impeachment was the initial remedy for a president's illegal behavior ― even in the extreme hypothetical case of Trump having shot former FBI Director James Comey to end the Russia investigation rather than just firing him.

"If he shot James Comey, he'd be impeached the next day," Giuliani said. "Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him."

Norm Eisen, the White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the silliness of Giuliani's claim illustrates how mistaken Trump's lawyers are about presidential power.

"A president could not be prosecuted for murder? Really?" he said. "It is one of many absurd positions that follow from their argument. It is self-evidently wrong."

Not only is it manifestly wrong, but it is utterly chilling what naked contempt the president and his legal team have for the rule of law.

Giuliani's comment echoes Trump's "I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue" comment, and we should all be extremely alarmed and outraged by the president and his top legal ghoul casually making statements about the president murdering someone, no less his political rivals, no less the Director of the FBI.

(It's also reminiscent of Trump's implicitly threatening comment toward Hillary Clinton at a rally in August of 2016, in which he suggested that "the Second Amendment people" might be able to find a way to stop Clinton from picking judges who would "essentially abolish the Second Amendment." By publicly talking about anyone shooting Comey, Giuliani is putting a target on his back via stochastic terrorism.)

This is utterly vile. And yet there is seemingly no line that this president and his goons can cross that is one line too far for the Republican Party. Disloyal cowards.