LETTER: President and immunity
Isn’t it rich that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor predicts a parade of horrors will follow the court’s majority decision that a president has limited immunity? She opines that future presidents will order the assassination of a political rival or take bribes in exchange for a pardon.
It’s odd because previous U.S. presidents could be accused of committing such crimes. In 2011, Barack Obama ordered the assassination of American citizens in Yemen without benefit of trial. On Bill Clinton’s last day in office, he pardoned international fugitive Mark Rich, who had been indicted for tax evasion, wire fraud and racketeering. But Rich’s ex-wife had donated heavily to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Library. Was it bribery in exchange for the pardon of a wealthy man?
Were their alleged crimes even investigated? Of course not. They’re Democrats. In fact, there is a remedy for presidential criminality: impeachment. Congress didn’t choose to pursue the above-mentioned cases, but that doesn’t mean high crimes weren’t committed. I wonder if the liberal justices were clutching their pearls back then?