Q&A: Yes, Trump could be elected president as a convicted felon

In a separate case, Trump was charged with leaving the White House with highly classified documents, keeping them in his Florida home and refusing to return them when requested.

Both of those cases are moving slowly and are not expected to be tried and completed by the time of the November election.

What happens to the federal cases if Trump wins the election?

If Trump were elected president again, the chief executive could order the federal prosecutions be dropped.

He could also issue pardons for all of his aides and allies as well as the hundreds of his supporters who broke into the Capitol to stop the certification of President Biden's victory.

What about the Georgia election interference case?

In a third criminal case, Fani Willis, the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney, brought a sprawling racketeering indictment against Trump and 18 others for allegedly conspiring to upset the vote count there.

That case has been sidetracked by allegations that Willis hired a romantic partner to run the prosecution.

So which case is the most likely to reach a conclusion before the election?

The "hush money" case set to go to trial in New York may be the least serious of the lot, but it has the best chance of being decided by a jury prior to the election.

The state trial was to begin Monday with jury selection.

Trump was indicted for 34 payments made to his former attorney Michael Cohen for what were listed in the company's books as legal fees.

But the payments included reimbursing Cohen for the $130,000 he had given to adult film actor Stormy Daniels to prevent her from disclosing an alleged past sexual encounter with Trump.

This record-keeping offense can be punished as a low-level felony if it can be shown that Trump committed a second crime by seeking to hide campaign contributions that influenced the election. Trump said he was trying to conceal the story from his wife.

Could Trump face jail if convicted in the hush money case?

Yes, but it's unlikely.

New York lawyers say defendants with no criminal record who are found guilty of a nonviolent offense are usually given probation, not a jail term.

And even if Trump provoked an irritated judge to make an exception in his case, he could be released on bail while his lawyers appeal the conviction.

Could a reelected President Trump pardon himself in the New York hush money case?

No.

The president pardon power is very broad, but it applies only to federal offenses, not to crimes under state law. The same would be true of the Georgia case.

What happens to the New York case if Trump wins the election?

That is unclear.

The New York judges could suspend the case if Trump is reelected. It has been a Justice Department policy for years that presidents should be not distracted by civil and criminal cases while serving as president, though such cases have been allowed to proceed to some degree.

The Justice Department under a reelected President Trump is likely to assert that federal law is supreme and that the president should be protected against such cases while in office.

The Constitution says "the judges in every state shall be bound" by laws enacted "under the authority of the United States."

The Georgia case would likely be suspended as well.

But there is no clear precedent.

"We're certainly 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 with this situation."