NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump's convictions on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York State Court have raised questions on how it will impact the upcoming presidential election, as well as what his July 11 sentencing might look like.
Candidates with felony convictions can still run for president, which Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs did in 1920 when he ran while in prison.
Local experts do not believe Trump will receive prison time for the convictions, which centered around hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges the two had sexual relations in 2006.
"For someone with no criminal history and a nonviolent offense like this, the sentencing generally would not include any prison time at all," said Widener Commonwealth Law professor Michael Dimino. "It would be perhaps probation, or some kind of restriction on his freedom and movement going forward."
Dimino says the expected appeals process could run into next year when Trump could potentially be the Commander-In-Chief again.
"In formal terms, the defense will have 30 days from the judgment of conviction to file the notice of appeal," Dimino explained. "But, the start of the process doesn't really matter. The question is: When could it end?"
The ramifications of the verdicts on Trump's standing with voters leading to the election remain to be seen.
"I think that for those who support President Trump without question, this will do nothing to change that," said Dr. Alison Dagnes, chair of the political science department at Shippensburg University. "That said, I also feel fairly strongly that the American public has faith in our institutions of justice to the point that if it was as full-throated as this decision was, that they will say there was actually something there, and that the guilty verdict was earned."
No major party candidate for president has ever been convicted of a felony before, a hurdle Dagnes says Trump will need to climb as he is expected to become the Republican nominee for the third straight election.
"The fact that this was a unanimous verdict on all of the counts makes it much more difficult to poke holes in this judicial decision," Dagnes said.