Where multiple defendants are said to have engaged in wrongdoing, moreover, it may be essential to a coherent indictment to include charges against a sitting president. It is possible for a prosecutor merely to list the president as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in an indictment of others. This was the course followed by Leon Jaworski, a special counsel during the Watergate scandal. Whether indicting a sitting president would facilitate or inhibit the pursuit of justice is a question calling not just for logic but for wisdom and judgment as well. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyIn any event, before a prosecutor declines to indict a president, he should seek an agreement that the president will not subsequently seek to bar prosecution based on deadlines that expired while he was in office.

Source: New York Times March 26, 2018 23:26 UTC