Cummings: DOJ should ‘definitely’ reconsider laws against indicting sitting president
A top Democrat on Sunday said the Department of Justice (DOJ) should “definitely” reconsider laws against indicting sitting presidents, amid multiple ongoing investigations circling around President Trump.
“I think we should always reconsider laws and regulations, and this is one we definitely should reconsider,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“This is one we definitely should reconsider,” Rep. Elijah Cummings says, agreeing with Rep. Adam Schiff that the Justice Department should reconsider guidelines that exist that say that a sitting president cannot be indicted. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/qzTiBPFANU
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) December 16, 2018
{mosads}DOJ guidelines state that a sitting president cannot be indicted, but some legal experts suggest that court precedent makes the regulation ripe for challenge.
Cummings, the likely incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman who is expected to launch new investigations into Trump’s actions once Democrats take control of the House next year, in his comments echoed fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.).
“I think the Justice Department needs to reexamine that OLC opinion, Office of Legal Counsel opinion, that you cannot indict a sitting president under circumstances in which the failure to do so may mean that person escapes justice,” said the likely incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee last week on CNN.
Cummings also said he wants Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to testify before his committee.
“I am hoping that Mr. Cohen will come before the Congress, where he can tell the American public exactly what he has been saying to Mueller and others without interfering with the [Robert] Mueller investigation,” he said.
Asked whether he plans to turn his attention to impeaching Trump in the next Congress, Cummings said Democrats will wait for the results of the special counsel’s ongoing investigation into Russian election interference.
“Our major thing right now is to let Mr. Mueller, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, do his job. Let him complete his job. Then we take a look at what he says and go from there. I think it’s actually premature right now to do that. But the evidence is certainly powerful enough. I think the president knows that.”
-Updated 12:38 p.m.
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