January 3, 2019

Pelosi Says It May Be Possible to Indict a Sitting President

“I think that that is an open discussion.”

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Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to reject the Justice Department’s opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted, saying in a new interview that she did not believe those guidelines to be definitive.

“I do not think that is conclusive. No, I do not,” the California Democrat told the Today Show in an interview that aired Thursday morning, just hours before she is expected to return to the speaker’s office.

“Everything indicates that a president can be indicted after he is no longer president of the United States,” she continued.

When pressed specifically on whether special counsel Robert Mueller could seek indictment against a president who is still in office, Pelosi said that it may be legally possible. “I think that that is an open discussion. I think that is an open discussion in terms of the law.”

She also did not rule out the possibility that Democrats would seek to impeach President Donald Trump, though she signaled that they would wait to see what emerged from Mueller’s final report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“We have to wait and see what happens with the Mueller report. We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason.”

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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