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Can a convicted Donald Trump become president?

2024-06-02 08:28:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Donald Trump, the most likely candidate of the Republican Party for the presidential elections in November 2024, has been found guilty in the first trial against a former American president. The New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of the indictment. From April 15, the court dealt with the charge, whether money was paid in the 2016 presidential election campaign to keep Trump's stories of extramarital sex with a porn star from becoming public. This process was the first of four court processes that Trump must face. In Georgia, it is about suspicions that there were attempts to change the failed election result in this federal state in the presidential elections in 2020. There are also two other processes against him, where it is about spreading lies about electoral manipulations to stay in power, as well as for the preservation of secret government documents after leaving the White House.

Can Trump run if convicted?

Yes. Regardless of how the court proceedings against him end, Trump will be able to run for the post of president - the US Constitution sets three requirements for people who aim for this post: They must be citizens born in the United States and at least 35 years old. And they must have lived at least 14 years in the USA. Nowhere does it say that a convicted felon cannot run for or become president.

Can Trump be disqualified under the US constitution, Article 14?

Paragraph 3 of the additional article 14 of the US constitution, states that persons who "have taken part in an insurrection or rebellion", after taking an oath to the constitution, are excluded from exercising "a civil or military office in the United States".

Activists who want to see the former president disqualified on that basis point to Trump's behavior before the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They say Trump's lies that Democrats stole the election incited the right-wing crowd to storm the Capitol. For this reason, this is considered, according to them, as participation in the uprising.

In a number of federal states there have been efforts to remove Trump from the primaries on the basis of this additional article. In March 2024, the Supreme Court rejected Colorado's petition, stating that federal states do not have the power to exclude people from running for federal office.

Can Trump vote despite the conviction?

Probably not. Trump is a registered voter in Florida. Convicted persons do not have the right to vote there. "Most convicts in Florida regain the right to vote after they have completed their sentences," explains New York Times political affairs reporter Maggie Astor. If Trump is sentenced to probation, then there is still not enough time to serve the sentence for him to regain the right to vote. The punishment measure will be handed down on July 11, a few days later the congress to nominate the candidate for the Republicans begins.

But if Trump had to go to jail, what would happen?

There is no clear answer to this. "We're a long way from anything that's happened before," Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional expert at the University of California at Berkeley, told the New York Times before the proceedings. "That would be pure speculation." Legally speaking, Trump would be eligible for his candidacy, even if he is in prison. But an elected president while in prison would be a logistical challenge. Reporter Astor speculates that Trump may seek release "on the grounds that his imprisonment would prevent him from fulfilling his constitutional obligations as president." But everything is speculative, this has not happened before, and it is not easy to make predictions./DW