Hillary Clinton could still become president, says Lawrence Lessig, Harvard professor

Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig says there’s still a scenario in which Hillary Clinton becomes president.

A candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination himself, Mr. Lessig envisioned a scenario in which President Trump resigns or is impeached, Vice President Mike Pence resigns or is impeached, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan — who would be next in line — nominates Mrs. Clinton to be his vice president, and then steps aside to let her have the job.

“This is one way that it could happen,” Mr. Lessig told Newsweek on Wednesday. “But that’s very different from saying I think it will happen, or should happen, or the evidence is there for it to happen.”

The scheme was originally hypothesized in an essay Mr. Lessig penned last October

If the president and vice president are impeached for colluding with the Russians to win the White House, the professor said Mrs. Clinton is the rightful heir to the throne.

“If Ryan became President because the Trump/Pence campaign committed treason, who should he nominate as his Vice President?” Mr. Lessig wrote on Medium. “The answer seems unavoidable: He should nominate the person defeated by the treason of his own party, and then step aside, and let her become the President.”

Mr. Lessig said he hasn’t seen anything to resolve “whether there was some conspiracy to steal the election.”

But if evidence of collusion is found, he said Mr. Trump must step down.

“Absolutely, he’s got to resign,” Mr. Lessig told Newsweek, “and if he doesn’t resign, then absolutely Congress needs to impeach him.”