House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is sponsoring legislation that would allow the president to transfer state-level prosecutions and civil lawsuits involving him to federal court, paving the way for impeachment and pardons.
A bill from Rep. Russell Frye (R-Lausanne) would allow current and former presidents and vice presidents to bring such cases in federal court.
Federal prosecutors could choose to drop state-level cases, which would open the door for a sitting president to pardon a former president if he is convicted. The president does not have the power to pardon state convicts.
“We’re trying to maintain the integrity of our justice system and we’ve seen some local and state prosecutors take advantage of that system,” Johnson said.
“I think it’s a sensible idea,” he added, calling it a way to “address the two-tiered justice system in this country.”
The bill is an apparent response to a New York jury convicting former President Trump on state-level charges of falsifying business records to hide hush money paid to adult film stars before the 2016 election.
Supporters of President Trump have expressed frustration with the prosecutors and judge in the case, but the jury unanimously upheld all 34 charges related to the case.
Trump tried to move the New York lawsuit to federal court, but lost in federal district court and later dropped his appeal.
He chose not to try to do so in the Georgia election interference lawsuit.
But Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is trying to throw out the Georgia election interference lawsuit after losing two lower court cases and is now lobbying the Supreme Court to rehear the case.
Mychael Schnell and Zach Schonfeld contributed.
