In these вЂњ wrongful death suits,вЂќ the plaintiffs donвЂ™t have to prove evil intent and deadly action beyond a reasonable doubt. The relatives of people who died due to the wrongful or neglectful behaviour of other parties can bring a civil suit, seeking monetary damages rather than prison time. вЂњThe political folks believed that because was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that will be an effective political strategy.вЂќ They failed to do so.ДЄccording to a health official who worked closely with KushnerвЂ™s team, this failure was deliberate: They were private citizens who, despite having no public health expertise, had assumed a specific responsibility to protect American citizens from the pandemic. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)ДЄt the time of these events, Kushner and some other members of the task force -among them a Morgan Stanley executive and a Silicon Valley billionaire - were not elected officials. Kushner speaks at a news briefing at the White House in August 2020. Testing lagged for crucial weeks, resulting in more infections and dead Americans. Unable to draw on federal resources, states competed with one another for equipment. These decisions were objectively disastrous. The task force also seems to have nixed its own plan for nationwide testing. Yet KushnerвЂ™s outside-the-box thinking also brought a sudden shift in pandemic responsibilities from the national government to the various states. He did deliver a cache of N-95 masks to New York City. Kushner also pledged to вЂњthink outside the box.вЂќ On April 2, 2020, shortly after TrumpвЂ™s conversations with Woodward, the presidentвЂ™s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, announced that he would be helping Vice-President Mike PenceвЂ™s coronavirus task force with supply issues.

A civil action?Д«ut the law offers another path to justice when it comes to the Trump administrationвЂ™s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In legal terms, he should be more worried about the more than two dozen women who have accused him of sexual assault, not to mention further accusations of sexual misconduct, in ways he boasted about in 2005. In short, TrumpвЂ™s actions here were morally repellent, but they would be very hard to prosecute as criminal. Imagine a precedent that could enable a Republican administration, through the Attorney GeneralвЂ™s office, to pursue Barack Obama for the deaths of U.S.

That principle isnвЂ™t as bad as it sounds.ДЄfter all, constitutional government depends on peaceful transitions of power, which in turn require that former office-holders live without fear of state sanction. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)ДЇinally, government officials in general, and the president in particular, are often immune from prosecution for their actions in office. Trump speaks during a news conference on COVID-19 at the White House in July 2020. He could also point to his early ban on travel from China as evidence that he acted on his information. Whether he listens is unclear, but he could plausibly claim that being president involves a unique range of responsibilities and decisions - that heвЂ™s less akin to a negligent parent leaving a pistol next to his kidвЂ™s tricycle than to a fireman who confronts many fires at once. In his capacity as chief executive, Trump also receives a daily briefing about a huge range of national security threats. ItвЂ™s much harder to establish guilt for collective suffering, especially with all the variables of COVID-19 infections.

Prosecutors would need to show that Trump himself caused the deaths of specific other persons. Source: CBC News, The National.ДЄnd yet the fact that heвЂ™s president also gives Trump some get-out-of-jail-free cards.Д¬riminal prosecutions generally require clear, one-to-one relationships between perpetrator and victim. Trump plays down the threat of COVID-19 at a White House news conference.

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