Donald Trump, the former US president, is involved in four criminal investigations by three levels of government; the Manhattan district attorney, the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney, and the Department of Justice.
Donald Trump ( Photo: Politico )
The most commonly asked question is whether an indictment would stop Trump from running for president again.
The Constitution requires only that candidates are natural-born citizens, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the US for at least 14 years. Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained that although it would be difficult for an indicted candidate to win votes, it is not forbidden for them to run or be elected.
Trump lost the 2020 election, so the 22nd Amendment forbidding anyone who has twice been president from running again does not apply to him. Although he was twice impeached by the House during his presidency, he was acquitted by the Senate both times, so the impeachment disqualification clause in the 14th Amendment does not apply to him either.
However, if he was convicted of a felony, he would be barred from voting in his adoptive home state of Florida until he had served a potential sentence.
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Trump’s indictment in New York City relates to a hush-money payment scheme to an adult film star and is not connected to insurrection or rebellion.
The charges in the indictment are not yet publicly known. Although the payment to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels occurred years ago, Trump has argued the statute of limitations has run out, though lawyers could argue the clock stopped when he became president in 2017.
Although the hush-money payment investigation appears to be the smallest of the four investigations into Trump, his finances, the subject of a long-running investigation, seem to be a bigger issue. However, the Manhattan district attorney decided not to criminally charge Trump with tax crimes.
Trump has also been sued by the New York attorney general in civil court based on some of that evidence. The investigations in Georgia about election meddling and the Justice Department‘s investigation of January 6 and Trump’s treatment of classified data also appear more consequential. These cases are being pursued by different entities at different paces in different governments.
Trump’s Secret Service detail is working with authorities in New York City about how the arrest process would work if Trump was indicted.
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