Can Trump run for president if convicted?

(CNN Spanish) — The investigation into former President Donald Trump’s role in the hush-pay scheme appears to be winding down, rekindling a key question heading into 2024: Can the former president run for the White House if convicted?

The courts haven’t fully resolved the issue, but the general consensus is that neither an indictment nor a conviction will legally prevent Trump from being elected.

In the past, not only have convicted felons contested federal charges, but at least one has successfully run for president from prison: Eugene Debs, an early 20th-century socialist candidate for the White House, won more than 900,000 votes in 1920. He campaigned for the presidency while in prison on espionage charges.

The widely held view that a conviction would not prevent Trump from returning to the White House is the widespread legal argument that the Constitution alone sets the standards that candidates must meet to become president.

“It’s pretty accepted that the requirements to be president are listed in the constitution,” he said in November In an interview with CNN Derek Mueller is a professor of election law at the University of Iowa School of Law. “And being convicted of a crime is not one of them, and neither the states nor Congress can add any of those qualifications.”

According to constitutional lawyer Rafael Benalvar, consulted by CNN en Español, the Magna Carta establishes only three conditions for a person to be president: he must be born in the United States, and he must have lived in the country for at least 14 years. And he should be 35 years or above.

“At no time does the Constitution say that being convicted of a crime or being prosecuted or serving time in prison can’t prevent you from running for president or serving,” he says. The country is North America. In other words, according to the expert, it is “theoretically possible” that a person can rule even in an orange suit.

Mueller, for his part, said “it could be a practical hurdle, a fundraising hurdle,” but in all cases “these are political issues, not legal ones.”

What did Trump say about his mission?

Trump announced his intention to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 in November, attempting to become the nation’s second president to be elected to two consecutive terms.

If the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicts the former president, it would be a rare moment in history: Trump would be the first former U.S. president to be indicted and the first major impeached presidential candidate to seek office.

The former president has said that he will not even think about withdrawing from the 2024 race if he is accused.

So far, the Former President He has not been formally charged with any crime by a government, a state, or a city, but he is under investigation by all three. He denies wrongdoing in all matters involving him, whether personal, political or economic. Here is what the investigations against him are.

With information from Fredreka Schouten, Tierney Sneed, Angela Reyes, Kara Scannell, Devan Cole and Zachary B. Wolf.