Can Donald Trump still be elected president if indicted?

Former President Donald Trump appears to be at the center of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s grand jury investigation into a silent payment made to a porn star by Mr Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in 2016.

The investigation has entered a new phase in recent weeks, and now Mr. Bragg’s office has contacted the president’s attorneys to offer an opportunity for voluntary testimony, a sign that multiple sources familiar with the investigation have said. The New York Times means that an indictment or several indictments are probably in preparation. Mr. Trump himself predicted on March 18 that he would be arrested the following week.

“THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION! Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social in an angry message in all caps.

If Mr. Trump was indeed charged with a crime, it would be the first time that an investigation into his inner circle (of which there have been several, the most famous of which led to multiple indictments for figures linked to the campaign of 2016) actually drew blood from the president himself.

The Justice Department’s protocol against indicting a sitting president seemed to chill any agency’s ability to do so while in office, but the president’s loss in 2020 opened the door to a lawsuit. for the 2016 Stormy Daniels case as well as an investigation into the Jan. 6 attack and Mr. Trump’s efforts to nullify the election.

This second investigation is continuing, with the distinct possibility of potential charges for both Mr. Trump and members of his legal team. And alongside the Bragg Inquiry, it begs the question: what will happen to the 2024 race, and Donald Trump’s ability to participate in it, if he faces a criminal indictment?

The short answer is, not a lot. There are no restrictions in the United States Constitution preventing anyone charged or convicted of a crime, or even currently serving a sentence, from running for or winning the presidency. Even though he was tried and convicted in one of the so-called ‘quick trials’, he has repeatedly applauded the Chinese government for operating in the drug offense cases Mr Trump could still lead his entire presidential campaign from a prison cell.

What is much less clear is what would happen if he won in this scenario. Just as there is no restriction in the Constitution for a person to appear on indictment, there is no explanation of what should happen in the event of a victory. There is nothing in the document that would automatically grant Mr. Trump a reprieve from prison, except for the likelihood that any charges brought by federal authorities, if they were still in dispute at the time Mr. Trump assumed the presidency for the second time, would be dropped due to the Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute a sitting president.

State-level charges like those pursued by Mr. Bragg are much trickier and would not fall within Mr. Trump’s power of pardon if they result in a conviction.

If a conviction on state charges occurs alongside an election victory for Trump, it would likely lead to a massive legal battle to determine if there is a way for the former president to get out of his sentence. If Mr. Trump were unable to avoid this outcome, it would almost certainly lead to his impeachment or removal via the 25th Amendment, which allows the Cabinet to remove a president who is unable to hold office. There are many functions and pitfalls of the presidency that would be simply impossible to operate or perform from a prison cell, viewing classified documents to name one.

Any potential conviction of Mr. Trump is still a long way off and little more than a remote possibility. But the conversations he’s started with his bid for president despite multiple criminal investigations have already pushed parts of theoretical American constitutional law into a much more real place than many pundits ever imagined.