Brett Kavanaugh Quotes

Presidents routinely testify in criminal cases. You know, George W. Bush did it with Valerie Plame. Bill Clinton did it three times with Ken Starr. Gerald Ford did it with respect to a testimony about a Charles Manson follower. And Ronald Reagan, I think, is perhaps the most important precedent.

The president can violate the law, and when he does, he is supposed to be held accountable. That is supposed to be one of the pillars of our democracy.

There is no sentence in the United States Constitution that says the president's children cannot be indicted.

Whether the Constitution allows indictment of a sitting president is debatable.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.

This is a case if the President is permitted to be above the law, then we no longer have a republic.

Presidential power was overruled by the high bench in July 1974, when President Nixon was ordered to turn over some audio tapes of his White House conversations, including the 'smoking gun' tape of June 23, 1972, that revealing the Watergate cover up.

The laws have become so straight-jacketing that presidents and their aides dare not keep journals or diaries, lest they be subpoenaed by avid special prosecutors.

The upshot of the Nixon tapes case was that any president is going to have an extremely hard time resisting a request from a law enforcement officer.

I think probably, you know, from my perspective, the folks who say a sitting president cannot be indicted have the better of the argument that the president can't be indicted - put, you know, through a criminal trial while he is president - and that the proper way to do it is to impeach him first, remove him, and then seek criminal prosecution.

The role of the federal prosecutor and the purpose of a criminal investigation are well-defined.

In our system of government, the president is not supposed to be above the law. He is not a king; his word is not the law.

But history shows that when courts intervene because a president is trying to shield his own conduct, the deck is stacked against him.

A President can obstruct justice and Congress has the full right to hold a President accountable for such law-breaking through impeachment. After a President leaves office, I believe they may be held accountable through the courts as well.

In a case involving his private conduct, a President should be treated like any private citizen. The rule of law requires no more - and no less.

Congress should clarify that a sitting president is not subject to criminal indictment while in office.

It is ridiculous to sue the president on a Wednesday because he oversteps the law, as he has done a dozen times illegally and unconstitutionally, and then on a Thursday say that he should overstep the law, contradict the law that passed in 2008 and deal with this himself.

I didn't say 'former president,' I said 'president,' and I have the constitutional rights according to the constitution, including immunity from prosecution.

Every president since George Washington has taken executive privilege seriously. Every Republican president has.

The vice president had a bargaining asset, however, that no ordinary person has: He was next in line to the presidency. I saw no chance that he would resign first, then take his chances on trial, conviction, and jail.

In all candor, the Court fails to perceive any reason for suspending the power of courts to get evidence and rule on questions of privilege in criminal matters simply because it is the president of the United States who holds the evidence.

There is not a single Supreme Court case that insinuates that the President can violate a federal statute in order to gather foreign intelligence. It was a flagrant violation of The Constitution.

The Bush administration is not arguing that the President is above the law; they are arguing that the President is the law.

I believe executive privilege should protect the President's conversations with key aides ... but on substantive matters of concern I do not believe executive privilege ought to exist.

We need an attorney general for the people, not a presidential protector and puppet of the administration.