Does Congress have the power to remove a former President's

[Progressive Jones]

"benefits", i.e. pension, security detail, etc.?

[Shrike47]

1. Nope. They could write some new legislation, of course. The benies are legislatively created.

[The Magistrate]

2. One Suspects, Sir That Would Constitute A Bill Of Attainder

The law would have to affect all former Presidents now living and in the future, it could not be specifically aimed at the cheap thug. It might past muster to remove such from any former inhabitant of the White House who was convicted of a felony....

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Can Any Law Enacted Be Retroactive?

Once gone, applying the law to "it", would by definition, be retroactive.
When prohibition went into effect, brewers weren't prosecuted. The law didn't apply to manufacturers who did it before it was a law!

[The Magistrate]

8. That, Sir, Would Be An 'Ex Post Facto' Law, Also Barred

A variety of tricks the English Crown was fond of at the time were expressly barred in our Constitution. That is one reason treason is so strictly defined. English law on the matter was so 'flexible' the claim 'a man who said Godspeed to someone engaged in a treasonable enterprise might find himself on the scaffold' did not exaggerate by much. The people who drew up our Constitution had been at risk of the treason laws of England, and many had been outright criminals in violation of the excise even before the Revolution. They wrote in what they'd have liked the law to be while they were engaged in breaking it. People who complain about criminals getting off on technicalities fail to appreciate the true bias of the document such decisions are based on. We are not a law abiding people, never have been, probably never will be.

So far as I am aware, people caught for a crime after some delay are tried and sentenced under the law in effect at the time of the crime, not what it may be at the time of their arrest and trial. At least so long as the offense remains a crime at the time of the arrest. In Illinois, for instance, if there were some old warrant out for possession of a half ounce of marijuana, and some zealous officer performed an arrest based on it, the charge would be dismissed. Possession and sale of a dozen pounds could still be brought to trial, as that remains illegal to this day (or at least I believe it is, it's not something I have had any occasion to check)....

[LiberalFighter]

5. I could see it passing muster if there was a disqualification based on criminal behavior

or other misdeeds.

[Lithos]

7. Agreed

You could add a clause about maintaining the dignity of the office afterward and remove any and all benefits if one of several conditions were met - including felony conviction. But I think Congress would not do so as it might be added to a reason why they would lose their own benefits. However, I could easily see them extending the same forfeiture clause they have to the Presidential benefits, namely committing one of these felonies whilst in office:

1.bribery of public officials and witnesses;
2.acting as an agent of a foreign principal while a federal public official;
3.fraud by wire, radio, or television, including as part of a scheme to deprive citizens of honest services;
4.prohibited foreign trade practices by domestic concerns;
5.engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity;
6.tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant;
7.racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations;
8.conspiracy to commit an offense or to defraud the United States;9.perjury; or
10.subornation of perjury

I somehow think that one or more States would be able to convict multiple points once Trump is out of office.

[The Magistrate]

9. A Pleasure To See You On The Board, My Friend

Having a good deal of fun here.

It looks like the cheap thug could readily be convicted on all ten of the things you suggest, and doing so would be a damned good idea, and a proper 'reset' for our Republic.

[Lithos]

10. If I may be a bit vulgar

The toilet is going to have to flush more than a few times to get rid of this turd's effects.

L-

[The Magistrate]

11. Plungers, Sir, Power Snakes

And of course we must remember. The creature is but a symptom, the florid buboe erupting and clotted with poisons. The disease itself is the millions who could look at this cheap grifting wanna-be thug, and vote for him as President. If that cannot be cured, this will just be one episode --- the malignancy will flare up again and again.

"How weak must you be to look at Trump and see a strong man?"

[Lithos]

12. Evolution

Evolution of grift in the system - Trump is nothing but the scum de la scum of the grifter set. He is the nadir of a whole set of scum who came before him and who still rot the system and who are helping creating the next generation of contagion.

I am fearful that Trump is both Emperors Commodus and Domitian, ineffective, cruel, paranoid and self-obsessed. Both of these Emperors were keystones in the eventual demise and Fall of the Roman Empire. How sad if the new normal from the pandemic also means such a low bar in leadership.



“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you were heading.”
– Lao Tzu

[The Magistrate]

13. An Interesting Way To Look At It, Sir

Domitian, if recollection serves, got off at least one good line "Who will believe in a plot to assassinate the Emperor until it succeeds?"

It has been a while since I read up on old Rome, and it would probably repay the time to reacquaint myself with its decline in the West.

I always figured our Empire would pass away, but never imagined the cause would be suicide by self-inflicted idiocy.

[MLAA]

3. I'd love to see impotus' security detail standing duty outside his prison cell

[Thunderbeast]

6. I would think that a succesful civil suit

could "claw back" his earnings and his assets. His negligence has caused great damage, and will kill thousands.