The 2024 presidential election presents a distinct scenario with Donald Trump’s New York trial and three other ongoing legal cases against him.
This trial, now in its final stages, brings unprecedented questions. Can Trump be president if convicted of a felony before the election? What if he wins while in prison? Can he pardon himself once in the White House?
On the first question, the answer is yes.
“Article I 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 explained. “Being a convicted felon is not a bar to being president.”
While the question of whether voters would elect someone with a criminal record is significant, another legal issue arises if Trump were elected while serving a prison term.
Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis stated Trump would have to be released to serve in the Oval Office — with a condition.
“New York officials would have to let Trump go if he was in the state’s custody [and won the election],” he said. “But he would still have to serve his time after his second term.”
However, this remains mostly hypothetical, he added.
“For a first-time nonviolent offender in New York, it’s highly unlikely he’d face significant incarceration,” Kreis noted. “And the idea that one of the two federal cases would have a jury deliberating before Election Day is almost zero.”
Despite these low odds, Secret Service agents have met with New York corrections officers to prepare for such a possibility, according to CBS News. The Truth Voices has reached out to the Secret Service for comments.
Whether a president can pardon himself has been debated among legal scholars for years.
Most agree he could not pardon himself for state crimes but might for federal crimes. Even if Trump did, this wouldn’t help in his New York and Georgia cases, and he would remain a convicted felon in those jurisdictions if found guilty, although it wouldn’t impact his presidential duties.
Another question is whether Trump could vote for himself if convicted, as Florida doesn’t allow felons to vote. According to von Spakovsky, the answer is technically no but could be changed by Florida’s GOP-led legislature.
“Nothing prevents the state legislature from passing a special bill allowing [Trump] to vote after a conviction,” he explained. “State legislatures have full authority over whether a convicted felon can vote under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Given the Constitution’s minimal criteria for the presidency, von Spakovsky states Trump could technically be elected and serve from prison.
“If elected, Trump could be sworn in and act as president even from prison,” he noted. “The only way to remove him from office is through impeachment.”
Thus, while many Democrats hope Trump’s New York trial will hurt him politically, the trial’s legal outcome won’t affect his ability to serve if he wins.
