“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.” ― Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

In January:

Trump’s Bizarre Immunity Claims Should Serve as a Warning
What might be the most disturbing aspect of the oral arguments is how unsettled the law actually is in the area of Presidential powers and accountability.

By Amy Davidson Sorkin

January 10, 2024

“Could a President order seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?” Judge Florence Pan, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, asked D. John Sauer, a lawyer for Donald Trump, in oral arguments on Tuesday. It was a remarkable question for a remarkable political moment, and one that has been a long time coming. Pan was one of three judges on an appeals panel hearing Trump’s argument—which seemed, in varying degrees, to appall them—that the case brought against him by the special counsel, Jack Smith, related to Trump’s actions in the run-up to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, should be thrown out. Trump contends that, in the absence of an impeachment conviction, he is absolutely immune from prosecution for acts related to his official duties as President. Hence Pan’s question about an assassination. “That’s an official act, an order to seal Team 6,” she pointed out.

Sauer stalled and tried to qualify his answer by saying that such a President would need to be, and indeed “would speedily be,” impeached. Pan interrupted to say that that was more easily said than done. “I asked you a yes-or-no question,” she tried again. “Could a President who ordered seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, who was not impeached—would he be subject to criminal prosecution?”

“If he were impeached and convicted first,” Sauer said.

“So your answer is no,” Pan said.

[….]

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C000628 04/03/2024 MISSOURI RIGHT TO LIFE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE John Sauer 331 Bryn Wyck Place St Louis MO 63141 James Otis Law Group Attorney 4/1/2024 $50,000.00

[emphasis added]

As long as Seal Team Six is not involved, apparently.