Impeach or Indict

   Can a federal official be indicted while in office, or must he or she be impeached first?
   Spiro Agnew, vice president under Richard Nixon, argued that he could not be indicted while in office, but that any potential charges should be held until after impeachment and removal from office, or until after his term of office expires.
   Solicitor General Robert Bork disagreed, so Agnew resigned as vice president and pleaded no contest to the charges filed against him.
   Federal judges and members of Congress have been indicted while in office, so why not the president?
   Justice Department policy has been that the agency does not try to indict a sitting president. That, however, only means that they don't. It doesn't mean they can't.
   In recent days, the discussion has been raging in print and on TV talk shows as to whether Donald Trump should be indicted on a variety of allegations made against him, or whether the Department of Justice should wait until after he leaves office.
   That argument did not work for Spiro Agnew as vice president, so why should it work for Trump?
   As for Nixon, who resigned rather than face certain impeachment, his successor Gerald Ford issued a pardon soon after Nixon left, so the issue became moot -- even before any criminal charges were filed against Nixon.
   Meanwhile, the evidence is piling up that Trump was indeed involved in various activities that violated several laws, increasing the odds that he could well be impeached, and that criminal charges could be filed against him even as he occupies the office of the presidency.
   Now the question is whether an indictment should be sought now, or should legal officials wait until he is ousted through impeachment, resigns or leaves office after his term expires.
   Lawyers argue the constitutionality of whether a sitting president can be indicted. Some say yes, others say no. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is holding to its policy that they won't try.
   It is clear, however, that many other federal officials have been indicted, tried and convicted of criminal or civil offenses while they were in office.
   Up to and including the vice president. So is the president above the law?