Can Trump go to prison while he serves as president of the United States? Penal scenarios for the new POTUS
On Nov. 26, the verdict for document forgery will be announced in New York after being postponed by Judge Merchan to avoid influencing the election results.
Donald Trump has open cases with the justice system in different states across the country. Document falsification, theft of official documents, destruction of administration information while he was president, vote manipulation, encouraging the assault on the Capitol, among others.
He was already convicted in May for paying actress Stormy Daniels a fee that he tried to disguise as legal expenses for his company. And on Nov. 26, a New York court will hand out a new sentence for document forgery.
Trump is unlikely to face a prison sentence, as this is his first conviction and the case involves a non-violent crime. If he were a normal citizen, the 34 felonies related to falsifying business records could have sent him to prison long ago, according to a New York Times investigation, which found that 42% of similar cases in Manhattan end with a jail sentence.
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Having won the election, he will most likely avoid going to jail, at least for the duration of his term in the White House, since there is a federal law that prevents prosecuting a sitting president and that the authorities in New York are expected to respect.
The American Constitution of 1787 makes no reference to the legal or judicial status of candidates or incumbent presidents, leaving a legal vacuum in situations of criminal accusation or conviction.
In the absence of explicit prohibitions in the Constitution, the most common interpretation is that no accusation or conviction prevents someone from serving as president.
What are the cases against Trump?
- He is accused in Washington of trying to modify the results of the last elections in addition to encouraging the assault on the Capitol; electoral subversion.
- He faces charges in the state of Georgia for his attempt to manipulate the vote count.
- In Florida, he is accused of taking classified documents after leaving the Oval Office to his residence in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, dozens of them with sensitive information regarding the country's national security.
- He is involved in cases in New York, where one criminal charge ended in a conviction. Other civil convictions he has been handed are for sexual abuse. The defamation charge by columnist E. Jean Carroll is being filed, while another charge of financial fraud involving his family business in New York is being added.
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The Stormy Daniels case
This was the most high-profile case, but in terms of criminal charges, the least serious. Trump was found guilty of the 34 charges against him after having made payments in 2016 to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels through his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The bribe was given to guarantee her silence and cover up an extramarital relationship they had had 10 years earlier. He sent checks worth up to $130,000 through his company as legal expenses.
The judge charged him with falsifying documents and violating campaign finance laws in New York.
The court also found that by attacking the judge and the jury and commenting on the case, he violated the gag order that prevented him from speaking about either the witnesses or the jury, and he was fined for contempt.