Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., doesn’t buy Justice Department guidelines that suggest a sitting president can’t be indicted.
“I disagree with the Office of Special Counsel and the Department of Justice: There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the president from being indicted,” the likely next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee told CNN Sunday. “This country originated in a rebellion against the English king. We did not seek to create another king. Nobody, not the president, not anybody else, can be above the law. There’s no reason to think that the president should not be indicted.”
Nadler added that either way, a president can be indicted after they leave office.
The New York Democrat is considering legislation that would freeze statutes of limitations for the duration of a presidency in order to prevent a commander in chief from escaping prosecution if he commits a crime before being elected. The move comes as special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia inquiry appears to be reaching its conclusion, and legal action against Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, seemed to implicate the president in two felonies when he paid two women to stay quiet amid the 2016 campaign about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump.
[Related: Democratic investigator: Trump can be impeached if he directed Cohen to pay off women]
Nadler also defended statements he made last week indicating he wouldn’t lead further investigations into potential bias at the FBI as it probed Trump and his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, prior to the 2016 election.
“This has been thoroughly investigated. Frankly, it’s not a question of ending the investigation. There’s nothing left to investigate. It’s been done several times,” he said.
