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Amanda Bynes Pleads for President Obama's Help in DUI Case

By Andrew Chow, Esq. on June 06, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Amanda Bynes' DUI charge is now official, and the actress is turning to a higher power for help: President Barack Obama.

"Hey @BarackObama... I don't drink. Please fire the cop who arrested me. I also don't hit and run. The end," Bynes, 26, said in via Twitter on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

While we know President Obama is actively seeking political support (and donations) from Hollywood stars, he likely won't be taking sides in Bynes' DUI case.

Not only does President Obama have more pressing issues to worry about than Amanda Bynes' DUI charge, but firing a local police officer is not among the chief executive's enumerated powers.

While President Obama can certainly call upon local authorities to fire a police officer, history suggests he's more likely to invite the officer to the White House for a beer following a controversial arrest, as he did after a Cambridge, Mass., policeman arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates in a racially charged incident in 2009.

And while President Obama does have the power to issue pardons, such pardons are only for federal convictions, not for state DUI charges.

In Amanda Bynes' DUI case, the actress' lawyer entered a not guilty plea in court Wednesday morning, according to gossip website TMZ. Bynes was not in court.

Bynes faces a single count of misdemeanor DUI after she allegedly sideswiped a Los Angeles police cruiser in West Hollywood, Calif., on April 6. Because she allegedly refused both a breathalyzer and a blood test, she could face a harsher sentence of up to six months in jail if convicted.

With an experienced DUI lawyer, and with California's overcrowded jails, Amanda Bynes' DUI charge could result in just a few hours behind bars, TMZ predicts. Her next court date is set for July 18.

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