BEN BAKER: Understanding the charges against Trump

The question of whether Donald Trump should be allowed to run for president remains a hot topic. Let’s make this simple: He can run for the office right now.

Someone is now screaming, “But he was responsible for the January riots and the insurrection.”

Really? Got proof? More importantly, can you point to any judge or jury in the United States that has convicted him of “riots and the insurrection?” He was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. That is just an indictment, much the same thing as a grand jury indictment.

The trial in this case was conducted by the U.S. Senate, and the Senators did not convict Trump. According to laws across many states, untold legal precedents and even the U.S. Supreme Court, he did not do it. No conviction = not a criminal.

“The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict, and the penalty for an impeached official upon conviction is removal from office. In some cases, the Senate has also disqualified such officials from holding public offices in the future. There is no appeal. Since 1789, about half of Senate impeachment trials have resulted in conviction and removal from office,” says www.Senate.gov.

Someone out there is still screaming. The screamers are very likely Democrats, but certainly a few Republicans are part of the scream-along chorus.

President Clinton was impeached. The Senate did not convict him. Can we get some screams now?

Stripping someone of their fundamental rights without a conviction is a violation of the Constitution, which says in 14A, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Just to throw a sand monkey wrench into the already overheating brain gears, the Constitution never says people are presumed innocent. “The presumption of innocence is not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. However, through statutes and court decisions — such as the U.S. Supreme Court case of Taylor v. Kentucky — it has been recognized as one of the most basic requirements of a fair trial,” Cornell Law School’s website says.

The idea of requiring a conviction also is based in the 5th Amendment and the due process clause there.

If that first wrench did not jam some gears, here is another one. What about the cases headed to trial? 6A says, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

“State and district …” Hrm. Has President Trump been indicted, charged or convicted in any court in the District of Columbia? That’s where all this is supposed to have happened.

Yes. United States v. Trump is pending in District Court in the District of Columbia. Pending. It has not yet gone to trial. This case brings up charges not covered in the Senate trial and House impeachment, so double jeopardy is side-stepped there.

If Trump is convicted in the D.C. court of high crimes against the United States, then he cannot run. Still, no conviction. He can run.

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