Index – Abroad – Donald Trump’s fate is decided, he can even rule America from prison

77-year-old Donald Trump is the first US president to be indicted in a criminal case. He is charged with 34 counts of falsifying his business records. In doing so, he concealed the fact that he had paid money to a porn star before the 2016 presidential campaign. Stormy Daniels was offered $130,000 to keep quiet about her previous one-night stand with the married businessman.

If the jury declares Trump guilty of all charges, who – as is known – entered the ring again this year in the fight for the White House, then the accused can be sentenced to up to four years in prison per charge. Theoretically, the judge can punish him with up to 136 years in prison – however, the probability of this is negligible.

In this case, the maximum penalty will be up to four years behind bars, the New York Post wrote. It is also possible that the jury will find the former president guilty, but the judge will refrain from imposing a prison sentence. Moreover, it is not clear whether the panel, led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, will seek a prison sentence at all, since Donald Trump has not been charged with a violent crime and has never been tried before.

Could you forgive yourself?

In any case, if Trump is convicted and sent to prison in the case of the hush money, and he is elected the 47th president in November, he would not be able to pardon himself, because his trial is not considered a federal case, because the state of New York initiated proceedings against him.

The case of alleged election fraud in Georgia by Trump, which is also being litigated, is considered a state and not a federal case.

He also faces two other criminal charges in federal court: the mishandling of classified documents and the questioning of the 2020 election results that ultimately sparked the Capitol siege.

Being a federal conviction, he could pardon himself in those two cases if re-elected — in theory. However, it would most likely face a whole series of legal challenges.

President from prison

According to legal experts, there is no obstacle to Donald Trump running for the presidency from behind bars, or even to running the country from prison.

For example, Eugene Debs ran for president in 1920, even though he was serving a ten-year sentence for sedition in a Georgia prison. Amazingly, he swept almost a million votes, 3.5 percent of the total. His sentence was commuted by President Warren Harding in 1921.

There is no doubt that running the United States from prison would be a big challenge, but legally there is no obstacle.

City corrections and Rikers are ready to host Donald Trump if he is sentenced to prison, Fox News quoted New York City Mayor Eric Adams as saying.

The authorities will find suitable accommodation for him

– this is what the spokesperson for the prison service answered without elaborating on the question of whether he will be alone in his cell.

The situation would be complicated by the fact that even after his imprisonment and election, he would be entitled to secret service protection.

Some presidential activities – decrees, pardons, signing laws, appointments – can be carried out from behind bars. It is complicated, but not insurmountable, for the briefcase containing the nuclear launch codes to be near the president even in prison, Laurence Tribe, Harvard professor of constitutional law, said earlier.

(Cover photo: Former President Donald Trump, accompanied by lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, arrives for his criminal trial at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 29, 2024. Photo: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post / Getty Images)

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