Reading Room Document
A Sitting President's Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution
The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/19351/download.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit