In another telling sign that the twice-impeached and four-times-indicted former President Donald Trump plans an administration of tyranny and revenge, Trump attorney Dean John Sauer made some audacious claims Tuesday at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Sauer asserted that a sitting president, under certain circumstances, could order the elite military unit Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival without facing criminal prosecution. The shocking exchange occurred during the appeal hearing on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity after D.C. Judge Tanya Chutkan denied motions to dismiss his upcoming criminal trial based on First Amendment and presidential immunity claims.
A three-judge panel, composed of Judges J. Michelle Childs, Florence Pan and Karen LeCraft Henderson, engaged in a tense session as Pan probed Sauer with a series of hypothetical scenarios, seeking clarity on the extent of presidential immunity.
“Could a president order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival? That’s an official act, an order to Seal Team Six,” Pan asked, according to a transcript published by Mediaite.
Sauer’s response raised eyebrows. “He would have to be and would speedily be impeached and convicted before the criminal prosecution,” Sauer asserted.
Persisting, Pan sought a straightforward answer: “So your answer is no.”
Sauer’s response remained nuanced. “My answer is a qualified yes,” he said.
“There’s a political process that will have to occur under the structure of our Constitution, requiring impeachment and conviction by the Senate in these exceptional cases.”
The contentious dialogue continued, with Sauer emphasizing the Founding Fathers’ concerns about potential abuses of the criminal process for political purposes, suggesting their focus was safeguarding the presidency from factions and political opponents.
Trump has already declared that he’d be a dictator on “day one” if he were voted back into the Oval Office. He’s also maintained that he’d greenlight police officers to shoot anyone suspected of shoplifting.
Trump has also suggested that America’s then-top military general, Mark Milley, deserves execution. Additionally, Trump has voiced a desire to jail rivals like President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power,” Biden said in a recent campaign speech. “Trump and his MAGA supporters not only embrace political violence, but they laugh about it,” Biden said.
He added that Trump has been using language reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party.
“He talks about the blood of Americans being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany,” Biden said. “He proudly posted on social media the words that best describe his 2024 campaign. Quote: revenge. Quote: power in. Quote: dictatorship.
“There’s no confusion about who Trump is [or] what he intends to do,” the president said.
