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Donald Trump is facing 91 criminal charges after being indicted four times. Regardless of what his supporters think about those charges, the wheels of justice are turning and Donald Trump will likely be convicted on several felony charges.
When those convictions come will be critical to the question of whether Trump will take the oath of office from prison and whether he will govern from behind bars.
Since it is a generally accepted legal opinion that a president cannot be prosecuted while in office (although there would likely be challenges to that tradition), if Trump is sworn in without being convicted, it’s difficult to see how he could be denied office. All prosecution would be on hold as long as Trump served as president.
But what if Trump is convicted of felonies before Election Day? Or Inauguration Day? There are no constitutional guardrails to guide the country through such an unprecedented scenario.
Trump would be free to appeal any conviction, of course. But there’s nothing in the law to prevent vindictive, Trump-hating judges from putting him behind bars while the appeals move forward.
Reason.com’s Keith Whittington has developed some scenarios of what might happen if Trump is in prison and wins the election.
If Trump is cooling his heels in the big house when Inauguration Day arrives, he could simply be sworn in as president in his prison cell.
