CNN Legal Analyst Breaks Bad News For Anti-Trumpers: He Can Serve as President ‘Even From Prison’

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig had some bad news for opponents of ex-President Donald Trump: he can still run for and become president “even from prison” if convicted on charges for which he’s been indicted.

Trump himself broke the blockbuster news Thursday that he has been indicted in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into classified documents under the Espionage Act, news that shook the political world.

But on Friday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Honig went through the steps this case will take, and they did not include disqualifying Trump from office even if he’s convicted — notwithstanding an untested provision of federal law that may or may not be “constitutional”:

POPPY HARLOW: So where do we go next? What happens next?

ELIE HONIG: Yeah. So here’s here’s the process as it will play out the next time in court. The first time in court in this case will be at the arraignment, the initial appearance. That’s Tuesday at 3:00 PM down in Florida. After that, prosecutors will have to turn over discovery. That means as a prosecutor, you have to give over all your information, all your evidence to the defense. Then Donald Trump’s defense team will bring motions. Rest assured they will make motions. They’ll try to get the case dismissed. They’ve already told us they’re going to be arguing there’s prosecutorial misconduct. Then at some point, we will have a trial. Query whether we will get that in before the 2024 election or not. That’s going to be a really important issue. Of course, only if there’s a conviction, we’ll then move to sentencing and only if there’s a conviction, we will then move to appeal.

PHIL MATTINGLY: Ellie, I’m not asking you this in the political context, but in the legal context, could this actually prevent the former president from becoming president again?

ELIE HONIG: So the short answer is no. Believe it or not, someone can run for and be president while they’re under indictment. Someone can run for and be president even if they’ve been convicted, theoretically, even from prison.

I will say this. There’s one law that could be in play here. It’s not one of the ones that we know is in the indictment, but it was part of what got them the search warrant that says if a person’s convicted of this, he’s disqualified from holding federal office.

Not clear whether that provision is constitutional. And in any event, it would have to go all the way through trial and appeal before that bar could be put in place.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.