Lysenko was able to manipulate communist ideology to discredit mainstream science on ideological grounds. Trump’s hydroxychloroquine claims have done something similar with conservative populism, tapping into the right’s mistrust of bureaucrats and educated elitists. [etc.]Id. So, whether on the Left, or the Right, any leader, or President, needs to be accountable to the people. American presidents may not be more accountable than Stalin for evils done in an official capacity, cf. Nixon v. Fitzgerald, supra. But even if criminal accountability does not exist for something a President does officially, e.g., urging people to inject bleach as part of a national TV address, there could at least be accountability for unofficial criminal acts, say, if a President were crazy enough actually to inject someone with bleach himself, playing "Dr. Death" despite not having a medical license.
That horrible latter possibility underlines how important is it to hold a President criminally accountable for unofficial acts he may do during, or may have done before, his Presidency, e.g., sexually assaulting a White House intern (a scenario mentioned in one's own brief in Trump v. Vance), or indulging in financial skulduggery requiring a Congressional subpoena for his records, the scenario (according to New York County D.A. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.) in 19-635 itself. Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997) (no immunity from civil litigation in federal court for acts prior to and unrelated to taking office) and United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974) (forcing President Nixon to surrender tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials) could be helpful here, in showing that executive privilege is not unlimited. Finally, the title of this post reflects, among other things, Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera, a story referencing plague. In our own dark times of plague--and they are very dark, a reality too dark to bleach out of existence--, people may find some temporary emotional relief by name-calling or fun-making, e.g., calling Trump "Clorox Don", or what-have-you. But more important than such wordplay, of course, is to hold our presidents accountable: under the law, not above it. If the Supreme Court refuses to recognize this, "equal justice under law" may have died--showing that COVID-19 is not the only plague, since lawlessness and injustice, in our Republic "of laws, not of men", can be considered plagues in themselves.
