Trump could shoot former FBI director and still get away, Giuliani’s remark stirs fresh controversy

Former New York mayor and a member of US President Donald Trump made an explosive remark while speaking to HuffPost in an interview on Sunday, June 3, saying the latter could get away even if he shot a former FBI director in the Oval Office to end the Russia investigation.

Giuliani, 74, said the president's constitutional powers are so broad that he could never be subpoenaed or indicted.

"I don't know how you can indict while he's in office. No matter what it is," Giuliani, who has courted controversies earlier as well, told HuffPost.

He said Trump would be impeached rather than prosecuted if he went on to shoot Former FBI director James Comey to end the ongoing Russia probe instead of sacking him, which he did in May 2017. The two individuals have seen a bitter tussle in the recent times.

Giuliani's remarks were not much different from the argument that Trump's other lawyers Jay Sekulow and former attorney John Dowd, who was replaced by Giuliani in April, presented in January to special counsel Robert Mueller probing the Russia link. In that letter which the New York Times published on Saturday, June 2, the duo claimed that the US president had constitutionally sanctioned powers to "terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired". Giuliani's remarks came just a day after the NYT revealed the January letter.

Giuliani's remarks came in for ridicule and criticism, nevertheless. White House ethics lawyer under former president Barack Obama Norm Eisen said Giuliani's claims showed their mistaken view about presidential powers, the HuffPost said.

Eisen and other constitutional experts said that the American Constitution doesn't give absolute protection to any president from criminal procedure. No person in the US is above law, they said.

But Trump and his associated have other beliefs to harbour.