There's this guy named William Consovoy, right? He's a high-profile lawyer from a white-shoe law firm called Consovoy McCarthy. He was educated at the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University. It costs in excess of $40,000 a year for out-of-state students to attend that particular institution. And after an education totaling around 150 Gs, William Consovoy got to make the following argument in front of a federal appeals court Wednesday morning, according to NBC News.

There could be examples where a state should be able to conduct a criminal investigation of a sitting president, "if, for example, he did pull out a handgun and shoot someone on Fifth Avenue."

Asked about that, Consovoy said a president could be charged with such a crime once he was out of office or if he was impeached and removed from office. "This is not a permanent immunity," he said.

"I'm talking about while in office. Nothing could be done? That's your position?" asked Judge Denny Chin.

"That is correct," Consovoy said.

And you thought the president* was exaggerating when he talked about this back in 2016. Conservative lawyers actually believe this stuff. (Feel free to point out that the overall conservative theory on presidential criminality seems to be that a president can shoot someone while in office, but he can't lie about a blowjob.) Just as the Founders intended. It is going to take a century to deprogram the stupid out of American conservatism and, even then, I make it no better than 8-5 against.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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