The 2024 presidential election has been thrown a major twist in the form of Donald Trump‘s New York guilty verdict.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, setting up several scenarios that have never played out before. Can Trump become president with a felony conviction on his record before the election? What if he wins while serving in prison? Can he pardon himself after entering the White House?
On the first, perhaps most crucial, question, the answer is yes.
“Article 1 of the Constitution sets out three requirements to be president. You have to be 35 years old, a natural-born citizen, and 14 years a resident within the U.S.,” Heritage Foundation legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky said. “Being a convicted felon is not a bar to being president.”
While the related question of whether voters will put someone with a criminal record in the White House is another factor to weigh, another legal issue is what happens if Trump were elected while serving a prison sentence.
Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis said Trump would have to be let go in order to serve in the Oval Office — with one catch.
“New York officials would have to spring Trump free if he was in the state’s custody [and won the election],” he said. “But he would still have to serve out his time after the conclusion of his second term.”
However, this particular scenario will probably remain a hypothetical, he added.
“For a first-time nonviolent offender in New York, it is highly unlikely that he’d face incarceration of any length,” Kreis said. “And the chance that one of the two federal cases has a jury empaneled quick enough to have deliberations before Election Day is almost zero.”
Despite the low odds, Secret Service agents have already met with New York corrections officers to prepare for the possibility, according to CBS News. The Washington Examiner has contacted the Secret Service for comment.
Legal scholars have debated for years whether a president can pardon himself.
Most agree he could not do so for state crimes but could potentially issue a self-pardon for federal crimes. Even if Trump does, that power would not help him in his New York and Georgia prosecutions, and he would remain a convicted felon in those states following a guilty verdict, even if did not affect his ability to serve as president.
Yet another question is whether Trump can vote for himself with a conviction, as Florida does not allow felons to vote. According to von Spakovsky, the answer is technically no but could easily be amended by the Sunshine State’s GOP-dominated legislature.
“Nothing would prevent the state legislature from passing a special bill specifically giving [Trump] the ability to vote after he is convicted,” he said. “The decision over whether a convicted felon can vote is entirely within the authority of state legislatures under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Due to the Constitution’s sparse requirements for serving as president, von Spakovsky says Trump could technically be elected and actually serve as president from within a jail cell.
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“If elected, Trump could be sworn into office and act as president even if he was in prison,” he said. “The only way he could be removed from office is through impeachment.”
Thus, while many Democrats hope Trump’s New York conviction will damage him politically and hurt his chances of being elected, the outcome of the trial from a legal standpoint will not affect his ability to serve if he wins.
