If convicted of criminal activity, could Trump still be POTUS?

[Cow Poke]

Could Donald Trump serve as president if convicted?

CNN —
Donald Trump for the second time this month has been indicted on charges related to 2020 election subversion, this time in the state of Georgia – a stunning fourth time this year that the former president has faced criminal charges.

But could the former president, who remains the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, assume the Oval Office again if convicted of the alleged crimes? In short, yes.

University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen – one of the country’s leading experts on election law – said Trump still has a path to the presidency should he win reelection in 2024.

“The Constitution has very few requirements to serve as President, such as being at least 35 years of age. It does not bar anyone indicted, or convicted, or even serving jail time, from running as president and winning the presidency,” he said in an email to CNN earlier this month.

Legal experts have pointed to the 14th Amendment as a way to keep Trump from holding office if he is convicted, which includes a “disqualification clause” that bars anyone from holding public office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

“There’s a big open debate over whether that element of the 14th Amendment is self-executing, and then open to judicial enforcement or whether Congress would need to pass legislation to enforce that provision. And that’s a debate that the legal academies are currently having now, we have no answer for that,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University.

“But to the extent that there might be a conviction in Georgia or in Washington, DC, for these election related crimes,” Kreis said, “I think that that’s another big open question about how these charges might relate to [Trump’s] ability and his eligibility to hold the office of the presidency.”

[Cow Poke]

Q&A: Yes, Trump could be elected president as a convicted felon

WASHINGTON —

Former President Trump made history last year as the first of the nation’s chief executives to be indicted for a crime.

This week, he will add another chapter — becoming the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges.

And later this year, he could top even that if he becomes the first candidate with a criminal record to win the presidency.

Here’s a look at the unprecedented legal questions Trump’s situation presents.

Could Trump become president after being convicted of a crime?


Yes.

There’s nothing in the Constitution or federal law that prevents a felon from holding the nation’s highest office.

While many federal employees would not be hired if they had a felony conviction on their record, the Constitution sets only a few bare-bones requirements for the chief executive.

“No Person except a natural born Citizen...shall be eligible to the Office of the President,” it says.

While today’s voters worry about candidates who are too old, the men who wrote the 1787 document sought to screen out those who were too young or lived abroad. A president must have “attained the age of 35 years and been 14 years a resident within the United States.”

Elizabeth Wydra, president of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center, says it is a mistake to assume the legal system will stand in Trump’s way.

“Nothing prevents him from running for president and being elected, even if he is in jail at the time of the election,” she said.

[seer]

I wonder if a Supreme Court Justice will swear him in, in the jail cell?

[Mountain Man]

Of course Democrats would immediately demand impeachment and removal from office, and the Republicans would very likely agree.

[seanD]

I wonder if a Supreme Court Justice will swear him in, in the jail cell?

If he's in a prison cell, I doubt he'd last a week. How would he possibly be protected?

[Ronson]

If he's in a prison cell, I doubt he'd last a week. How would he possibly be protected?

He'd be Epsteined.

[Ronson]

I wonder if a Supreme Court Justice will swear him in, in the jail cell?

If he survived in prison, he could immediately pardon himself and walk out.

[CivilDiscourse]

If he's in a prison cell, I doubt he'd last a week. How would he possibly be protected?

Well, democrats may have that outcome in mind. After all, they did introduce a bill that would strip him of Secret Service Protection if that were to happen.

[Starlight]

There are plenty of ways to delay court cases, and appeal them etc. I think it's pretty likely Trump's lawyers will manage to push out the final outcomes of the cases against him until after the election.

I think the most likely situation, come the election, will be that a couple of lower courts will have found him guilty, but the cases will be pending appeal.

If he's then elected, as seems reasonably likely at the moment, I think he'll likely be able to use his elected office to shield himself from those cases. That will likely be deeply controversial and divisive, but I think he'll manage it one way or another, at least for the period of time he's in office.

In the event that he ends up in prison before the election... according to polling a large percentage of Republican voters say they would no longer vote for him were he in prison. So the country shouldn't end up having to deal with an elected-from-prison situation, though that is technically allowed by the law to happen. (It's interesting you usually can't vote from prison, but you can be elected from it)

[Cow Poke]

If he's in a prison cell, I doubt he'd last a week. How would he possibly be protected?

Secret Service would have to hunker down with him.

[Cow Poke]

There are plenty of ways to delay court cases, and appeal them etc. I think it's pretty likely Trump's lawyers will manage to push out the final outcomes of the cases against him until after the election.

I think the most likely situation, come the election, will be that a couple of lower courts will have found him guilty, but the cases will be pending appeal.

If he's then elected, as seems reasonably likely at the moment, I think he'll likely be able to use his elected office to shield himself from those cases. That will likely be deeply controversial and divisive, but I think he'll manage it one way or another, at least for the period of time he's in office.

OK, but the more he is prosecuted, the more his chances for being elected increase.

In the event that he ends up in prison before the election...

Jail or prison? I have a hard time believing he'd actually be sentenced to prison.

according to polling a large percentage of Republican voters say they would no longer vote for him were he in prison.

Can you point to a couple of those polls, please?

So the country shouldn't end up having to deal with an elected-from-prison situation, though that is technically allowed by the law to happen. (It's interesting you usually can't vote from prison, but you can be elected from it)

I hadn't thought about that, but, yeah.

[Cow Poke]

Well, democrats may have that outcome in mind. After all, they did introduce a bill that would strip him of Secret Service Protection if that were to happen.

Ah, didn't know that!

[Starlight]

If he survived in prison, he could immediately pardon himself and walk out.

State level convictions can't be pardoned federally. So if the Georgia case imprisons him, he can't pardon himself on that account. IIRC Georgia's own pardon process isn't that simple.

[Cow Poke]

I wonder if a Supreme Court Justice will swear him in, in the jail cell?

...and would they swear him in on one of those Bibles he's selling?

[Starlight]

OK, but the more he is prosecuted, the more his chances for being elected increase.

If that's true, would you suggest he goes on a federal crime spree? Shooting a few people on 5th Ave in broad daylight, as he's rhetorically suggested he could do, should get him a few more prosecutions, which you're telling me would increase his chances.

Jail or prison?

Do you view the difference as important with regard to the politics of it?

Can you point to a couple of those polls, please?

First hit on google.