As Donald Trump’s fate in the hush money trial lies in the hands of the jury in deliberations, the question looms whether he can still run for president if convicted.
The US Constitution has clear-cut answers for some questions emerging from the first criminal trial of any former or current American president. But it does not directly address others surfacing from Trump’s unprecedented trial.
Regarding whether Trump can continue his presidential campaign to return to the White House if convicted, the answer is explicit within American law.
The US Constitution requires only that a candidate be at least 35 years old, a ‘natural born citizen’ and have lived in America for at least 14 years. It does not place restrictions around a criminal record.
That means Trump would be able to keep running for president if convicted in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Some US states bar people with a felony conviction from pursing state or local office, but there is no such restriction at the federal level.
‘Nothing prevents him from running for president and being elected, even if he is in jail at the time of the election,’ Constitutional Accountability Centre president Elizabeth Wydra told the Los Angeles Times.
Trump has vowed to stay in the presidential race regardless of the outcome of the hush money case.
The trial, which is in its seventh week, centers around a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her on alleged sexual affair. Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying 34 business records and denied reimbursing Cohen and having a sexual encounter with Daniels.
It is just one of four criminal indictments Trump has been hit with – but is looking to be the only one in trial before the November election.
The ex-president’s legal team has successfully delayed the process in his other indictments, around allegedly withholding classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia and Washington, DC.
Trump faces a sentence ranging from probation to four years behind bars if convicted in the hush money case.
If in prison and elected, he will remain legally eligible to serve as the country’s commander-in-chief. But what exactly would happen in that scenario remains murky.
Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson told The New York Times: ‘I don’t think that the framers (of the Constitution) ever thought we were going to be in this situation.’
‘We’re so far removed from anything that’s ever happened,’ Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told the newspaper.
‘It’s just guessing.’
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