Former President Donald Trump was indicted for an unprecedented third time on August 1, adding another set of serious federal charges to the mounting legal issues he faces.

  • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    One presidential candidate got 3.4% (more than all 3rd party candidates in 2020 combined) of the vote (over 1million votes) as a third party candidate while in prison in 1920.

      • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It makes sense though. Think about it like this, A politician that wanted to stay in power could disqualify his opponents by wielding the DOJ as a personal tool and nailing them with felony charges. Trump could have placed a more loyal attorney general, nailed Biden on some bullshit petty offense that technically qualifies as a felony, and have his name removed from the ballot shortly before the election. Allowing felons to run for president defangs that particular power move. To disqualify someone the 14th amendment would have to be invoked, and should be in Trump’s case.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          A politician that wanted to stay in power could disqualify his opponents by wielding the DOJ as a personal tool and nailing them with felony charges

          It’s how Putin and other despots have been doing it for a very long time.

        • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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          1 year ago

          While I do see the validity of this argument, it still feels like treating the symptoms rather than the cause. If the fear is a sitting president welding his personal power to imprison (and thus disqualify) a political rival, isn’t the bigger problem that a sitting president has the power to do this in the first place?

          • BlinkAndItsGone@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The Justice Department has to be able to indict people, that’s part of its function. And the DoJ is part of the executive branch. A good President will not use the DoJ for his personal political purposes, but the incentive to do so, if it was there, would be extremely powerful. I think it’s probably a good idea to remove it. If the people can’t be trusted not to vote for a criminal or a traitor, we have bigger problems.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I’ve heard the logic is to prevent people from wanting to retroactively legalize shit to secure votes from felons, which doesn’t make a lot of sense tbh