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Unpublished Paper
Secretary Clinton Can Relax Because Section 2071 Disqualification Does Not Apply To The Presidency: A Response to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Cause of Action
(2015)
  • Seth Barrett Tillman
Abstract

Michael B. Mukasey, a former Attorney General of the United States (and former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York), has stated that if former Secretary of State (and former Senator) Hillary Clinton is convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 2071, then she is disqualified from holding the presidency. Likewise, a Washington, DC think tank has just published a white paper taking the same position. Mukasey’s and Cause of Action’s position is fundamentally misconceived; indeed, neither puts forward any authority for the position that Section 2071 or any other federal statute creates or could create a disqualification in regard to any elected federal position, including the presidency.

18 U.S.C. § 2071(b): “Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”

[27 August 2015]

Disciplines
Publication Date
August 25, 2015
Citation Information
Seth Barrett Tillman, Secretary Clinton Can Relax Because Section 2071 Disqualification Does Not Apply To The Presidency: A Response to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Cause of Action (with a Short Reply from Attorney General Mukasey) (Aug. 25, 2015), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2650328, also available at http://works.bepress.com/seth_barrett_tillman/566/.