Serious question..Can the president just be arrested instead of impeached?

[xiamiam]

I'm serious...I think that impeachment is too long and involved...and that undermining the constitution and if we are getting ready to attack Iran without congressional approval, then that is treasonous...am I off base here?..just seems to me that willfully breaking laws merits arrest...

[yellerpup]

1. I don't know, but I hope so.

We need to stop him somehow.

[oldtime dfl_er]

11. If that was legal they'd have done it to Bill Clinton

So the answer must be no...


http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/1094932

[villager]

2. I hope so, too. Arrested and impounded. Along with the VP

hmm. I guess this post just wound up in an NSA file!

[xiamiam]

4. you're probably right...guess i should be very afraid...but im serious

is this a legitimate possibility?

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. No

A sitting President can only be removed from office through impeachment.

[xiamiam]

6. removed from office ....ok...but can he be arrested for breaking laws?

[corbett]

15. Theoretically, Yes, But There's No Way It Would Happen While He's In There

Once the Senate votes to remove him from office in response to an impeachment by the House, he no longer is the top law enforcement official in the land and could be arrested by any agency with probable cause or, of course, a warrant.

[onenote]

5. not according to 30 plus years of DOJ opinion

http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/sitting_president.htm

onenote

[xiamiam]

10. dont exactly understand your doc..but this one popped out

"The only kind of offenses that could lead to criminal proceedings against the President would be statutory offenses, and "their very inclusion in the Penal Code is an indication of a congressional determination that they can be adjudicated by a judge and jury"....

so what exactly are statory offenses?

[warrens]

7. He can't be removed from office without impeachment

He could run the country from a jail cell absent impeachment and conviction.

[NJ_Lib]

9. Wait just a minute here... Are ya'll saying that...

... a sitting President could be caught red-handed breaking the law, and he CANNOT be arrested, only impeached? Let's say there's a tape of a sitting president screwing a 13 year old girl while smoking a crack pipe, are ya'll saying he CANNOT be arrested for this?


Edit: Spelling

[michael_1166]

13. Lawmakers probably never imagined this could happen.

Time to rework some laws. It needs to be considered that even presidents can be idiots, criminals, psychopaths, liars and mass murderers. * is all of that at once. An anomaly, a complete DNA disaster.

[corbett]

16. If He Were Caught Red-Handed, The Witnesses Probably Would Check With AG

He could be arrested but that arrest could not be used as grounds for removing him from office. Only Congress can do that through the impeachment/expulsion process.

[michael_1166]

8. Maybe he can be declared being unfit for office

by an independent medical team?
I'd prefer seeing him in an orange suit and handcuffs though.

[lildreamer316]

12. Lordy; I wish. n/t

[xiamiam]

14. found this on findlaws web site..john dean 2003 article...

To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."

Nixon claimed that his misuses of the federal agencies for his political purposes were in the interest of national security. The same kind of thinking might lead a President to manipulate and misuse national security agencies or their intelligence to create a phony reason to lead the nation into a politically desirable war. Let us hope that is not the case