Quote:
Originally Posted by DaemonSeid
It's illegal to sue the President.
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Executive privilege is a very squishy, grey, untested area.
Here, my feeling on the subject is that in theory, if the alleged slander arose from the President's duties since he was commenting on a matter of public concern during a Presidential press conference. That should probably be a privileged statement.
Even if the statement wasn't privileged, I don't know if it'd be actionable anyhow for a few reasons. 1) The police officer is a limited purpose public figure -- he's famous, of public concern, etc. 2) since the President's statements weren't made with malice (he didn't know the statement was false or wasn't necessarily reckless with regard to the truth), and even if he did that it's hard to say that the President's words would have the tendency to lower the police officer's standing in the community. The whole story is out there and the President's remarks are a mere sideshow.
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