Former President Trump made history last year as the nation's first chief executive to be charged with a crime.
This week, he will add another chapter — becoming the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges.
Later this year, he may surpass that if he becomes the first candidate with a criminal record to win the presidency.
Here's a look at the unprecedented legal questions raised by Trump's situation.
Can Trump become president after being convicted of a crime?
Yes.
There is nothing in the Constitution or federal law that prevents a felon from holding the highest office in the land.
While many federal employees will not be appointed if they have a criminal conviction on their record, the Constitution sets only a few basic requirements for a chief executive.
“No person except a natural-born citizen… shall be eligible to hold the office of President,” it reads.
While voters today are concerned about candidates who are too old, the men who wrote the 1787 document sought to exclude candidates who were too young or who lived abroad. The President must be “at least 35 years of age and a resident of the United States for 14 years.”
Elizabeth Wydra, president of the progressive Center for Constitutional Accountability, says it's a mistake to assume the legal system will stand in Trump's way.
She added: “Nothing prevents him from running for president and running for elections, even if he was in prison at the time of the elections.”
She pointed out, by the way, that the law is not very generous towards voters.
“Having a felony on your record can prevent you from voting for president in some states,” Wydra said.
How could the Constitution lack such a good conduct clause?
Historians say that the prominent figures who wrote the Constitution placed their trust in voters to choose the president.
They did not expect a notorious figure to ever win the loyalty of these voters, who were typically property-owning white men like themselves. Alexander Hamilton, who helped design the Electoral College system, expressed confidence that it would produce “personages eminent in ability and virtue” capable of winning “the respect and confidence of the entire Union.”
Within a few decades, this system was gradually replaced by a system in which electors chose, state by state, from lists of electors pledged to a single candidate.
Doesn't the Fourteenth Amendment disqualify candidates who “participated in rebellion?”
Yes, but Trump was not charged with insurrection after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in March that states acting alone may not enforce the ruling.
Congress will have to act to implement this provision.
Has anyone ever run for president from prison?
Yes.
Eugene Debs ran five times as the Socialist Party's presidential candidate and received nearly a million votes in 1920 while serving a prison sentence for sedition.
Debs had spoken out against the World War I draft and angered President Wilson. But shortly after winning the White House, President Harding commuted the sentence.
What are the chances of Trump being convicted before the election?
This is completely possible.
Trump faces four sets of criminal charges.
The two most serious cases involve federal charges brought by private attorney Jack Smith. Trump was accused in Washington of conspiring to subvert the electoral vote counting process after Trump lost the November 2020 election.
In a separate case, Trump was accused of leaving the White House with top-secret documents, keeping them at his home in Florida and refusing to return them upon request.
Both cases are moving slowly and are not expected to be tried and completed by the time of the November election.
What happens to federal cases if Trump wins the election?
If Trump is elected president again, the chief executive could order federal prosecutions dropped.
He could also pardon all of his aides and allies as well as hundreds of his supporters who stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of President Biden's victory.
What about the issue of interference in the Georgian elections?
In a third criminal case, Fanny Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, filed a broad racketeering indictment against Trump and 18 others for allegedly conspiring to obstruct vote counting there.
That case was derailed by allegations that Willis hired a romantic partner to manage the prosecution.
So what is the most likely case to reach an outcome before the election?
The “silent money” case scheduled to go to court in New York may be the least serious of the others, but it has the best chance of being decided by a jury before the election.
The state trial was scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.
Trump was accused of making 34 payments to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in exchange for what was listed in the company's books as legal fees.
But the payments included reimbursing Cohen for $130,000 he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from disclosing an alleged past sexual encounter with Trump.
This record-keeping offense could be punished as a low-level felony if it can be proven that Trump committed a second offense by seeking to conceal campaign contributions that influenced the election. Trump said he was trying to hide the story from his wife.
Does Trump face prison if convicted in hush money case?
Yes, but this is unlikely.
New York lawyers say defendants without a criminal record who are convicted of a nonviolent crime typically receive probation, not prison time.
Even if Trump provokes an angry judge to make an exception in his case, he could be released on bail while his lawyers appeal the conviction.
Can re-elected President Trump pardon himself in New York hush money case?
no.
The president's pardon power is very broad, but it applies only to federal crimes, not to crimes under state law. The same applies to the case of Georgia.
What will happen to the New York case if Trump wins the election?
This is not clear.
It is possible that New York judges will suspend the case if Trump is re-elected. It has been Justice Department policy for years that presidents should not be distracted by civil and criminal cases while serving as president, although such cases are allowed to proceed to some extent.
The Justice Department under a re-elected President Trump will likely assert that federal law is superior, and that the president must be protected from such cases while he is in office.
The Constitution provides that “the judges of every State shall be bound” by the laws enacted “under the authority of the United States.”
The Georgia case will likely be put on hold as well.
But there is no clear precedent.
“We are definitely in new territory,” said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center in New York. “We don't know because we don't have any experience in this situation.”
