Former President Trump could still run for the White House despite being convicted in New York v. Trump and facing a prison sentence, though that is unlikely.
A jury found Trump guilty on all charges late Thursday afternoon. A sentencing trial is scheduled for July 11, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention.
“This has been a fraudulent and dishonorable trial. The true verdict will be handed down by the American people on November 5th,” Trump said outside the courtroom on Thursday.
“This has been an unjust decision from day one, by a conflicted judge who should never have been allowed to try this case. Never. We will fight for the Constitution. This is far from over.”
NY v. Trump: Jury reaches verdict in former president’s historic criminal trial
Judge Juan Marchan presided over New York v. Donald Trump. (Associated Press)
Trump could still run for the White House because the Constitution places no restrictions on presidential candidates based on their criminal records, and requires that anyone seeking the White House must be a natural-born U.S. citizen at least 35 years of age.
Trump has not yet been sentenced in the case, and while it is unlikely, prison time remains a possibility. The fact that Trump is 77, this is a first-time offender, and the charge is the least serious offense in New York state makes it unlikely that the 45th president will face any prison time.
But if Trump is sentenced, he would not be the first presidential candidate to appeal to the public for his vote from behind bars. Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs campaigned for the White House from a federal prison in 1920 after being convicted of sedition for opposing U.S. entry into World War I. President Warren G. Harding commuted Debs’ sentence in December 1921.
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Trump could also be placed under house arrest during his reelection campaign, which would prevent him from campaigning but could allow him to hold fundraisers at his Mar-a-Lago home or other residences.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said earlier this month that the city’s Rikers Island was ready if President Trump was ordered jailed.
Former President Trump appeared at a criminal trial in New York on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (Doug Mills/Pool via Reuters)
“Our great commissioner stands ready to handle whatever happens at Rikers Island,” Adams told media earlier this month, as Presiding Judge Juan Marchan threatened to jail Trump if he continued to violate the gag order.
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Trump is still entitled to Secret Service protection regardless of any potential prison time, meaning federal law enforcement agencies will have to coordinate with the Department of Corrections.
Secret Service agents and security personnel at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 31, 2023. (REUTERS/Ricardo Alduengo)
“I don’t think anybody knows what that would be. It would be devastating if that were to happen,” Staten Island attorney Louis Gelormino previously told Fox News Digital about what prison time could look like.
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Gelorminho added that before Trump is sentenced, a probation officer must interview him for a pre-sentence report to submit to Presiding Judge Juan Marchan. The report, which could take several weeks to prepare, will provide a profile of Trump and include a sentencing recommendation for the 45th president. The report will be shared with the judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers. Marchan does not have to follow the recommended sentence.
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Recent polls suggest that Trump’s approval rating has not been shaken by the trial. A recent New York Times poll found him leading President Biden in most key battleground states, including Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Trump also held a massive rally in historically Democratic New Jersey over Mother’s Day weekend, drawing an estimated 100,000 people, and another campaign event in the Bronx, drawing thousands of supporters.
Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
