[ti:Can a US President Be Charged With a Crime?]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.16]It is a constitutional question without a clear answer:
[00:06.52]Can a sitting American president be charged with a crime?
[00:14.04]The question has new importance as special counsel Robert Mueller
[00:21.28]investigates the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
[00:28.12]He is looking into possible connections between the campaign
[00:33.92]and Russians who reportedly interfered in the 2016 election.
[00:42.10]Last week, it was reported that Mueller is using a grand jury
[00:48.92]as part of his investigation.
[00:53.24]Grand juries decide if government investigators
[00:57.92]may legally demand private records and information from witnesses.
[01:06.00]There was no information about when—or whether
[01:11.04]—Mueller would bring criminal charges in the case.
[01:16.64]On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported
[01:21.44]that federal investigators searched and gathered evidence
[01:27.04]from the house of Paul Manafort, a Trump campaign manager.
[01:33.80]Mueller can prosecute any federal crimes linked to the investigation.
[01:41.12]In theory, that could include legal action against the president.
[01:48.68]Mueller is reportedly investigating if Trump obstructed justice
[01:55.28]when he dismissed James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
[02:04.00]If Mueller's team decides to bring charges against Trump,
[02:08.72]it could create a legal battle -- one that could likely end at the Supreme Court.
[02:17.72]The Constitution lists conditions under which a president
[02:23.92]can be impeached and removed from office.
[02:29.60]But the Constitution does not directly say
[02:34.12]whether the president can be prosecuted, or tried for a crime.
[02:41.80]Also, federal law does not say whether a president can be prosecuted.
[02:50.00]Courts have never ruled on the issue.
[02:54.52]Eric Freedman teaches constitutional law at Hofstra University in New York.
[03:02.88]He says legal opinion is divided
[03:06.80]as to whether a sitting president can be charged with a crime.
[03:14.12]"It's an important and unsettled question," says Freedman.
[03:20.72]He says the possibility of legal charges
[03:25.52]is another way to keep presidents answerable for their actions.
[03:33.12]Those who believe a sitting president is protected from criminal charges
[03:39.92]say it comes down to governing the country.
[03:44.40]A criminal charge, they say, could prevent presidents from carrying out their duties.
[03:51.88]That would damage the ability of the government to work.
[03:56.56]They say this is an understood constitutional principle.
[04:03.32]Others argue that the Constitution would include clear terms of such legal protection
[04:13.60]for the president if that is what its creators had wanted.
[04:19.72]These experts also argue that the Constitution clearly states
[04:25.68]no person is above the law.
[04:30.00]Kenneth Starr agrees with this view.
[04:34.40]He was the independent counsel who investigated former President Bill Clinton.
[04:42.76]In a Starr office memo recently uncovered by The New York Times,
[04:48.68]Starr said it is right, constitutional, and legal for a president to be charged
[04:56.76]for serious crimes that are not part of the president's official duties.
[05:04.24]"In this country," he wrote, "no one, even President Clinton, is above the law."
[05:13.20]Impeachment is the process by which Congress
[05:17.33]brings charges against the president.
[05:21.28]It means Congress is the court that tries the president.
[05:27.72]Impeachment is a political, not legal, process,
[05:33.10]according to James Pfiffner, a public policy professor at George Mason University.
[05:41.80]He believes impeachment is the best way constitutionally to hold a president accountable.
[05:51.64]The Constitution says reasons to impeach a president include
[05:57.80]"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."
[06:05.32]Congress alone has the power to decide what that means.
[06:12.28]What does it take to impeach a president?
[06:16.36]A majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives
[06:21.32]must agree on impeachment for it to happen.
[06:27.08]The Senate then holds a trial.
[06:30.60]And a president could be removed from office
[06:34.40]if two-thirds of the Senate agree the president is guilty.
[06:41.06]Only two American presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives
[06:49.44]- Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson.
[06:53.44]The Senate ruled not guilty in both cases.
[06:58.92]President Richard Nixon was facing possible impeachment when he resigned.
[07:06.52]The next president, Gerald Ford, pardoned Nixon after he left office.
[07:15.56]As a result, the former president could not face criminal charges.
[07:23.68]Now, some are questioning if a sitting president could pardon him or herself.
[07:31.88]Last month, The Washington Post reported that President Trump
[07:39.23]had asked his lawyers about such a possibility,
[07:44.24]although his lawyer denied the newspaper story.
[07:49.88]It appears the Constitution would permit a sitting president
[07:54.88]to pardon anyone for any crime at any time.
[08:01.48]I'm Caty Weaver.
[08:03.92]And I'm Anne Ball. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
ENTER NUMBET 0015www.ytmetro.com.cn
www.cqlxzs.com.cn
www.yoyeomis.com.cn
www.bocchain.com.cn
yuxnju.com.cn
jieshiba.com.cn
www.gd5g.com.cn
www.yvzt.com.cn
www.taixx.com.cn
www.odaiji.com.cn