How does the NY Trump guilty verdict affect the upcoming presidential election?
Former President Donald J. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts in a New York City trial, in which jurors took 9 hours to bring back a verdict. This historic trial represents the first time a former president has been convicted of a crime, let alone a felony. After the verdict was returned President Trump spoke to reporters in which he started with a very forward comment, “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt” before he remarked that the trial “was done by the Biden administration to wound or hurt an opponent” finally saying that “we’ll fight til the end and we’ll win because our country’s gone to hell”.
So what does this mean for the upcoming presidential election? Well, New York defense attorney Andrew Weinstein said that the legal precedent for this kind of crime coupled with Trump’s lack of prior criminal history will most likely leave him without incarceration. However, with Trump actively facing 3 other indictments for felonies across the country, Trump could find himself behind bars at some point in the future.
With this interesting aspect of modern politics, it is interesting to look back at history to discover if, in this scenario, Trump could run and be the President while in jail. If Trump were to run for president, he wouldn’t be the first. In the election of 1920, Eugene V. Debs ran for election as the socialist party’s candidate. Despite never hitting the campaign trail, Debs received 6% of the national vote. After Debs’ semi-successful campaign, the question of whether or not he would’ve been able to serve. Because of this, we go to the specific requirements of the office, in which no requirements relate to that of prison time. Furthermore, the idea has been thrown around that the most likely scenario in this situation would be a federal judge suspending the sentence of the president, in which said president would then complete their sentence after the conclusion of the term.
All to say, while Trump will most likely not be seeing any incarceration for the current felonies of which he has been convicted; however, the idea of a president being elected and then serving as a prisoner is highly unlikely, but still interesting nonetheless.
Sources
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1848/trump-hush-money-trial-34-counts
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2023/trump-criminal-investigations-cases-tracker-list/
https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2023/april/eugene-debs-tom-doherty.html