AAs former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial approaches its final stretch, a jury will soon deliver a verdict that could raise an unprecedented series of legal and political questions if Trump is convicted.
The presumptive Republican nominee is currently facing trial on 34 criminal charges over allegations that he falsified business records to hide a secret $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. of the USA to be indicted and, although he faces three other criminal cases, the New York case will give the first verdict and could be the only case to be judged before the elections.
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen testified during the trial that Trump personally approved the hush money repayment plan central to the criminal charges, but questions remain about Cohen’s credibility given his history of lying and committing crimes.
Prosecutors will need to prove to jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump not only falsified or caused business records to be falsely entered, but that he did so with the intent to commit or conceal another crime related to violating federal and state election laws .
Judge Juan Merchan said he expects closing arguments on May 28. After the attorneys summarize their cases, the judge will read the jury instructions and the jurors will deliberate. If the jurors cannot reach an agreement, the judge will declare a mistrial.
Whether found guilty or innocent, Trump has already laid the groundwork for his response and is prepared to seize on either outcome to advance his narrative of victimization and political persecution. But campaigning in the shadow of a criminal conviction is uncharted territory for presidential politics, and the legal issues will only become more acute if he wins the presidency in November.
See what would happen if Trump were convicted in the New York case.
Can Trump still run for president?
Yes. A felony conviction will not disqualify Trump from continuing his presidential campaign, even if he has been arrested.
This is because, according to the Constitution, all natural-born citizens who are at least 35 years old and have resided in the USA for 14 years can run for president. “There is no constitutional barrier to a criminal running for public office,” Richard Hasen, a professor of election law at UCLA School of Law, told TIME after Trump’s first indictment. “And given that the U.S. Constitution establishes presidential qualifications, it is not clear that states can increase them, such as banning criminals from running for public office.”
At least two candidates with criminal convictions have run for president in the past, although unsuccessfully. Nearly 100 years ago, Eugene Debs ran for president while in a federal prison in Atlanta as a Socialist Party candidate and received close to a million votes without ever campaigning. Another convicted presidential candidate, Lyndon LaRouche, ran for president in every election between 1976 and 2004 – including a prison campaign in which he won more than 26,000 votes.
Will Trump go to prison?
Trump could potentially be jailed if convicted, although most first-time offenders in non-violent cases are sentenced to probation and fines. The decision ultimately rests with Judge Merchan, who is not required to jail Trump if he is convicted by a jury.
The 34 charges Trump faces are all considered Class E felonies in New York, the lowest level of criminal charges in the state, which carry a maximum sentence of four years each. The judge is expected to impose a concurrent sentence so that Trump will serve the entire prison sentence simultaneously — four years maximum — if he goes that route.
But given Trump’s age, 77, lack of a prior conviction, the fact that he is the first former president to be criminally tried and could become president again, legal experts say there is no guarantee that a conviction results in a prison sentence. Instead, Trump is more likely to be ordered to pay a fine and serve a type of supervision sentence if he is found guilty, perhaps reporting regularly to a civil servant at the city’s Probation Department. Under penalty of probation, he could be arrested immediately for committing any additional crimes.
Criminals sentenced for less than a year are typically sent to Rikers Island in New York City, where Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, is currently serving his sentence for crimes related to his work for Trump. Sentences longer than one year would generally be served in one of New York’s 44 state prisons.
Unlike his other criminal cases, if Trump is convicted in this trial and elected President again, he will not be able to attempt to pardon himself. Falsifying business records is a state crime and only the governor of New York, a Democrat, could forgive him. (Even in federal cases, it is an untested legal question whether he could pardon himself.)
Can Trump appeal? How long will an appeal take?
If Trump is convicted, he will almost certainly appeal the verdict – a process that could take months or more to complete. He would likely first take the case to the Appellate Division in Manhattan and ultimately seek review from the state’s highest court, the Albany Court of Appeals, which has already ruled against Trump’s multiple requests to delay the trial.
The lengthy appeals process is unlikely to end before election day.
Can Trump still vote?
Be determined.
For Trump to lose his voting rights, he would have to be incarcerated at the time of the November elections, a scenario that is technically possible but unlikely given his early appeal of any guilty verdict.
Although the Constitution does not explicitly address whether convicted felons have the right to vote, several states impose limitations on felons’ voting privileges. In Florida, where Trump has lived and voted since 2020, a felon’s eligibility to vote depends on the laws of the state where the conviction occurred – in this case, New York, which only revokes a felon’s voting rights while they are incarcerated.
Therefore, if Trump receives a probationary sentence and resides in the community, he will maintain his eligibility to vote. Likewise, if his appeal of a prison sentence extended beyond the election, he would be able to vote.
What does this mean for Trump’s other cases?
Although a conviction in the secret trial will not have a direct impact on Trump’s other criminal cases, it could influence his strategy and change public perception of him and his legal problems.
For example, a guilty verdict could strengthen the prosecution’s case in the eyes of the public and legal observers, potentially influencing jury perceptions and trial dynamics in the remaining cases. A conviction in the hush money case could also impact Trump’s willingness to negotiate plea deals or settlement agreements in his other criminal cases.
Prosecutors could also try to use a conviction to undermine Trump’s credibility in future trials, and judges could take the conviction into account when determining sentencing.
In addition to the silence case, Trump faces 40 criminal charges in Florida for allegedly hoarding classified documents and obstructing government efforts to recover them, four charges in Washington related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and 13 criminal charges. in Georgia in connection with his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
