U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), an ally to President Donald Trump, is in hot water over a social media post.
Lee on Sunday took to X and posted a photo of a man accused of posing as a police officer and shooting two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses.
Along with the image, Lee confusingly wrote, “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”
It’s a state crime. Trump can’t pardon him, but he’ll try.
I mean it’s a federal crime as well, but I understand the distinction.
He’s being charged with federal murder charges
Why did Walz make a point of saying local cops did the cuffing, taking over from FBI?
The arresting officers wouldn’t make a decision with respect to federal charges in most instances. It’s very common for local authorities to initially take a suspect into custody and if federal charges are applicable, they would be filed later after federal prosecutors have looked over the case and evidence.
I assume the suspect will likely face both state and federal charges, but federal charges have been announced that make him eligible for the death penalty. Federal prosecutors have much higher conviction rates than local prosecutors, generally.
An actual execution is unlikely to be carried out even if he is successfully convicted. That’s unrelated to any hypothetical pardon, it’s just because the US rarely executes inmates at the federal level these days. They usually just linger in appeals and waiting on death row for decades.
Edit: *Federal executions are rarely carried out these days when Trump isn’t in office. He pushed through as many as he possibly could at the end of his first term, right up until the day he left office.
It can be both.