Can Donald Trump still be president if he’s convicted in hush money trial?

Published

6 months ago

May 30, 2024

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Donald Trump is on trial accused of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories that he thought might hurt his presidential campaign in 2016.

The former president, who is facing 34 counts of falsifying business documents to cover up a $130,000 (£102,000) payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, denies all charges and says he never had sex with the adult film star.

The case in New York is the first of four criminal cases against him to go to trial, and marks the first time a former president has faced criminal charges.

It is unlikely the remaining three cases will go to trial before the November election.

With the hush money trial coming to a close, Sky News takes a look at what could happen to Mr Trump’s quest for reelection if he is convicted.

Can Trump still run for president if he’s convicted?

Yes. The US Constitution sets out three main requirements for being eligible to become president – and none of them reference being a convicted criminal.

Candidates must have been born in the US, be over 35, and have lived in the US for at least 14 years.

“Nothing prevents him from running for president and being elected, even if he is in jail at the time of the election,” Elizabeth Wydra, president of the progressive Constitutional Accountability Centre, told the LA Times.

That’s despite people with a felony conviction – a crime that can be punished by a year or more in prison – not being allowed to vote in some states.

But what if he were to be elected while in prison?

This is a little more complicated, firstly because it’s not clear if Mr Trump will be sent to prison anyway in the event of a guilty verdict.

The convictions would be class E felonies in New York, the lowest tier in the state, with each carrying a maximum sentence of four years.

In choosing the sentence, the judge would have to take into account Mr Trump’s age – he’s now 77 – his lack of previous criminal convictions, and the fact that the case involves a non-violent crime.

Even if the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, opted for a custodial sentence in the event of a conviction, it would be likely Mr Trump would appeal the guilty verdict – and expect to be on bail until that hearing.

That process could go all the way to the Court of Appeals, and, importantly for Mr Trump, could drag on for months, possibly even past November’s election.

If Mr Trump were to be elected while serving time, the situation becomes more complicated still, with even constitutional experts unsure.

“It’s just guessing,” Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told the New York Times earlier this year.

“We’re so far removed from anything that’s ever happened.”

Could power transfer to the vice president?

In theory, experts say, there is nothing to stop Mr Trump from taking office, even if he were to be behind bars.

There is a provision – the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution – which provides a process to transfer authority to the vice president if the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”.

However, that would require the approval of the vice president and members of Mr Trump’s cabinet – who will have been hand-picked by him and will no doubt be loyalists.

It is more likely, experts say, that Mr Trump would look to sue for his release or seek a pardon to allow him to govern.

How would a guilty verdict impact the election?

Opinion polls suggest a guilty verdict could pose a significant political danger for Mr Trump.

In an April poll, one in four Republicans said they would not vote for Mr Trump if he was found guilty in a criminal trial.

In the same survey, 60% of independents said they would not vote for Mr Trump if he was convicted of a crime.

What do the experts say about its potential impact?

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said he doubted a quarter of Republicans would actually shun Mr Trump – but he said even a small number being turned off by a guilty verdict could help Joe Biden in a close election.

He said the nature of the New York case, which was brought by a Democratic prosecutor and relies on untested legal strategies, would help Mr Trump and fellow Republicans frame a guilty verdict as a political hit job.

“If I were trying to design a court case that would be easy for Republicans to dismiss as a partisan witch hunt, I would design exactly the case that’s being brought in New York,” he said.

Republican consultant Tricia McLaughlin said she thought a guilty verdict would have a psychological impact on Mr Trump because he hates losing.

It would also likely mean financial resources are diverted to legal bills because he would almost certainly appeal, she added.

Analyst Bill Galston said he didn’t expect a guilty verdict would have a significant impact on the presidential race.

“In the end, this amounts to lying about sex. I think the view probably of the majority of Americans is that everybody lies about sex,” said Mr Galston, who has worked on Democratic presidential campaigns.

Have convicted criminals run for president before?

At least two candidates with criminal convictions have run for president in the past – although neither successfully.

Eugene Debs ran for president from prison in 1920, getting almost a million votes without ever hitting the campaign trail.

In 1992, Lyndon LaRouche also ran from behind bars while serving a 15-year sentence for mail fraud. He received about 26,000 votes.

US

Five things to expect from White House meeting between Joe Biden and Donald Trump

Published

8 hours ago

November 13, 2024

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Five things to expect from White House meeting between Joe Biden and Donald Trump

President Joe Biden has invited Donald Trump for a meeting at the White House today.

This is what we expect is likely to happen.

Guest List

The meeting takes place at 11am local time (4pm UK time). It’s unclear whether they’ll be joined by anyone else for the “meet and greet”.

The final plans are still fluid but, as of last night, vice president Kamala Harris wasn’t expected to attend and JD Vance, the vice president-elect, hadn’t received an invitation from her.

The future first lady, Melania Trump, has been invited to accompany her husband on the visit but it’s thought unlikely she will attend. She did make the visit in 2016 and had tea in the Yellow Oval Room with the then first lady Michelle Obama.

It’s unclear whether the current first lady, Dr Jill Biden, will participate, although she is scheduled to be at the White House.

Enemies Reunited

The Oval Office meeting will be the first between Mr Biden and Mr Trump since the pair shared a TV debate stage in Atlanta last June. It was the night Mr Biden’s gaffes cost him the candidacy.

On that occasion, there was no handshake between the two old enemies and the mood darkened as the verbal sparring began.

“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence,” said Mr Trump. “I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

Mr Biden said of Mr Trump: “You’re the sucker, you’re the loser.”

It was the language of loathing that has long characterised the pair’s interactions. In the past, Mr Biden has called Mr Trump a “threat to this nation”, and Mr Trump has called Mr Biden “stupid”, and a “low-IQ individual”.

And remember, Mr Trump has threatened to pursue retribution against Mr Biden, stating he would hire a “real special prosecutor” to go after him.

On this historic occasion, expect the coldest handshake in American history.

Precedent

Former president Barack Obama invited then president-elect Trump to meet at the White House two days after the 2016 election.

The sit-down in the Oval Office lasted approximately 90 minutes and Mr Obama called it “an excellent conversation” that was “wide-ranging”.

Then vice-president Biden met with then VP-elect Mike Pence during that time as well.

Six days later, the Bidens hosted the Pences at their home.

Mr Trump did not invite Mr Biden for a 2020 visit to the White House, while refusing to concede the election.

In snubbing Mr Biden, Mr Trump bucked a presidential tradition that had gone back decades.

Former president George W Bush hosted Mr Obama in 2008 and Laura Bush hosted Michelle Obama, while former president Bill Clinton hosted Mr Bush in 2000.

What will Mr Biden and Mr Trump discuss?

There is no published agenda but there’s every chance we’ll hear it first hand from either, or both. TV cameras will film the event and both men will have the opportunity to take questions.

Following his 2016 meeting with Mr Trump, then president Barack Obama said: “We talked about some of the organisational issues in setting up the White House. We talked about foreign policy.

“We talked about domestic policy and, as I said last night, my number-one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful.”

It is a familiarisation meeting, as much as anything else. Senior staffers, on both sides, will also meet their counterparts.

What’s in it for them?

For both men, this meeting symbolises an orderly transition of power.

Presidents, outgoing and incoming, working for the good of the country. It works for Mr Trump because why wouldn’t it? He won decisively and will survey the spoils.

It works for Mr Biden because a peaceful transition represents everything that, for him, Mr Trump doesn’t: respect for the office, respect for the people and respect for democracy.

As much as this meeting is wrapped up in the politeness of protocol, it has hard politics at its heart.

US

Donald Trump confirms Elon Musk will co-lead new department of government efficiency

Published

10 hours ago

November 13, 2024

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Donald Trump confirms Elon Musk will co-lead new department of government efficiency

Donald Trump has confirmed Elon Musk will co-lead the new department of government efficiency.

The president-elect said on Tuesday that the Tesla and X owner – who is also the world’s richest man – will work with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the department, which is known as DOGE for short.

The appointment fulfils a promise Mr Trump made to the tech billionaire after he endorsed him in the race for the White House, and poured more than $119m (£92m) canvassing for him in the seven battleground states.

In a statement, the president-elect said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.

Despite its name, the DOGE is not a government agency and is instead set to provide “advice and guidance” from the outside of government.

The statement released by Mr Trump said it will partner with the office of management and budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before”.

This will likely mean both Mr Musk and biotech entrepreneur Mr Ramaswamy will be allowed to continue working in the private sector and serve without Senate approval, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported, as they would technically not be federal workers.

Federal employees are generally required to disclose their assets to ward off any potential conflicts of interest, and to divest significant holdings relating to their work.

After being elected president in 2016, Mr Trump handed over control of his business empire to his sons in order to try and avoid a conflict of interest. The move was later criticised by the director of the office of government ethics that it did not go far enough and Mr Trump “still [knew] what he owned”.

‘More efficiency and less bureaucracy’

A deadline of 4 July 2026 has been put in place for the new DOGE to conclude its work.

The DOGE acronym coincides with a popular meme and the name of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin that Mr Musk promotes.

Mr Trump added: “A smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!”

Mr Musk said in the statement that the department will “send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste”.

The billionaire has said in the past he wants to cut $2trn from the federal budget but has provided few details on what he would cut.

Meanwhile, Mr Ramaswamy, who threw his support behind Mr Trump after suspending his own bid for the presidency in January, previously called for mass lay-offs in federal agencies.

The union representing federal workers said in a statement on Tuesday that if the DOGE implements these recommendations, or ones similar, it would “mean massive cuts” to multiple departments.

In a string of picks for his second administration, Mr Trump also named Fox New host and army veteran Pete Hegseth as defence secretary and said he would nominate former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to be director of the CIA.

Earlier this week, the president-elect named Susie Wiles – who ran his 2024 presidential campaign – as his White House chief of staff, the first woman in history to take up one of the most important non-elected roles in Washington.

Florida senator Marco Rubio is reported to be named as secretary of state, who serves as the president’s chief foreign affairs adviser and the country’s top diplomat.

If chosen, Mr Rubio would be first Latino member of the president-elect’s top team, but Mr Trump could still change his mind on the appointment.

Below is a list of all the appointments Mr Trump has made for his administration so far:

• Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff
• Pete Hegseth, secretary of defence
• Mike Waltz, national security adviser
• Tom Homan, “border czar”
• Elise Stefanik, United Nations ambassador
• Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy
• Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Mike Huckabee, ambassador to Israel
• Steven Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East
• John Ratcliffe, CIA director
• William McGinley, White House counsel
• Kristi Noem, secretary of homeland security.

US

Pentagon leaker sentenced to 15 years in jail after sharing military secrets online

Published

13 hours ago

November 12, 2024

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Pentagon leaker sentenced to 15 years in jail after sharing military secrets online

A member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who leaked classified Pentagon information has been jailed for 15 years.

Jack Teixeira shared documents that contained information about the war in Ukraine on the messaging platform Discord.

The leak exposed information about troop movements in Ukraine, and the provision of supplies and equipment to Kyiv’s soldiers.

He began sharing the documents in 2022, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported, and had held top-secret security clearance since the year before.

Teixeira pleaded guilty earlier this year to six counts of wilful retention and transmission of national defence information following his arrest in the most consequential national security case in years.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit, he showed no visible reaction as he was sentenced by US district judge Indira Talwani.

Before being sentenced, he apologised for his actions, saying: “I wanted to say I’m sorry for all the harm that I brought and caused.”

He referenced the “maelstrom” he created and added: “I understand all the responsibility and consequences fall upon my shoulders alone and accept whatever that will bring.”

Afterwards, Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, hugged one of his lawyers and looked toward his family and smiled, before being led away.

The security breach raised alarm over America’s ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and left the Biden administration scrambling to try to contain the fallout.

The leaks were also embarrassing for the Pentagon which tightened controls and disciplined members who failed to take necessary action over the 22-year-old’s suspicious behaviour.

Assistant US attorney Jared Dolan said Teixeira’s sentencing would “be a cautionary tale for the men and women in the US military”.

Teixeira’s own lawyers said that while his actions were criminal, they were never intended to “harm the United States”.

“Instead, his intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” the lawyers claimed.

Prosecutors in court said he tried to cover his tracks as they found a smashed tablet, laptop and Xbox in a rubbish bin at his house.

Teixeira, who was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, worked as a cyber transport systems specialist – an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks.