Nancy Pelosi demands new law to make it possible to INDICT a sitting president

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she backs legislation that would subject a sitting president to potential criminal prosecution.

With the debate over how to proceed on impeachment still raging through the House Democratic caucus, the California Democrat told NPR the current arrangement requires a legislative solution.

Justice Department guidelines state that a president can’t be criminally prosecuted while in office. 

‘I do think that we will have to pass some laws that will have clarity for future presidents,’ she told the radio network. 

‘[A] president should be indicted, if he’s committed a wrongdoing — any president. There is nothing anyplace that says the president should not be indicted,” Pelosi said. 

‘That’s something cooked up by the president’s lawyers. That’s what that is. But so that people will feel ‘OK, well, if he — if he does something wrong, [he] should be able to be indicted,’ she said.

She followed up with tough words for Trump, even as she continues to resist an impeachment effort that would divide her caucus and likely come up short.

‘The Founders could never suspect that a president would be so abusive of the Constitution of the United States, that the separation of powers would be irrelevant to him and that he would continue, any president would continue, to withhold facts from the Congress, which are part of the constitutional right of inquiry,’ she said.

 Any legislative effort won’t go far. Trump would have to sign such legislation. And it would have to get by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who controls the agenda, in a chamber where even a minority of 40 could filibuster the idea.

President Donald Trump was insulated by DOJ guidelines that state a sitting president can’t be prosecuted. The Mueller probe cited 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice. 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller noted in his report that existing Justice Department guidelines against charging a sitting president informed his investigation. The Mueller probe cited 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice.

Trump also faces a civil suit from Sumner Zervos, a former ‘Apprentice’ contestant who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her. 

With Mueller’s work completed, federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s payments to porn start Stormy Daniels, which were reimbursed by the Trump Organization.