"If you're convicted of a felony and incarcerated, you can't vote, but you can win the election," Muller said. He was convicted of tax and mail fraud in 1988, but that didn't stop him from running his campaign from prison in 1992.Īlthough there may be practical hurdles involved in running a campaign under the shadow of criminal charges, including any restrictions on travel imposed by a judge, there are no constitutional obstacles to participating in the election, according to Muller. Lyndon LaRouche, a fringe candidate who espoused conspiracy theories about an economic apocalypse, ran for president in every election between 19. "I know of nothing that would have barred him from the office if he had won the election," Ortiz said. He won more than 3% of the vote nationally. Debs had been convicted of violating the Espionage Act over an anti-war speech. There is even precedent for running for president from prison.ĭan Ortiz, a professor at the University of Virginia Law School, pointed to Eugene Debs, who ran for president while behind bars in a federal prison in Atlanta as the nominee of the Socialist Party in 1920. Indeed, candidates with criminal convictions have run for president in the past. Legally speaking, however, the Constitution lays out just three requirements to become president: the person must be a natural born citizen of the United States, 35 years or older and a resident of the U.S. The decision to charge Trump sent shockwaves throughout the political world and introduce an unpredictable new dimension to the 2024 race for the GOP nomination. Attorney Robert Costello, a Trump ally who says he advised Cohen on legal matters, said he told the grand jury that Cohen acted on his own accord in arranging the deal with Daniels and was a "totally unreliable" witness. Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment, and prosecutors zeroed in on the alleged falsification of business records over the reimbursements. Michael Cohen, Trump's then-attorney and "fixer," made the payment in exchange for Daniels agreeing not to disclose an alleged affair she said she had with Trump a decade earlier, which he denies. In the criminal case, a New York grand jury was convened by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has been investigating matters related to a $130,000 payment made to the porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
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