WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump could join the growing list of politicians who have been elected after being convicted of a crime.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee who was convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, is neck and neck with President Joe Biden in national polls, or in some cases leading by a slim margin.
If the former president returns to the White House in November, he would follow in the footsteps of many others, including former Washington Mayor Marion Barry, a Democrat who returned to office after serving six months in federal prison on drug charges, and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican who pleaded guilty to assault charges.
“It’s a major problem in our democracy that you can be convicted of a crime, go to prison and still be re-elected,” said David Greenberg, a history professor at Rutgers University. “The White House and Congress have been negligent in failing to pass any legislation over the last four years to address this issue.”
“It is important to recognize that most of us, regardless of party or ideology, tend to forgive crimes, scandals and wrongdoings committed by politicians we respect for personal or political reasons,” he added.
Prepare to vote: See who’s running for president and compare their positions on key issues with our voter guide
Below is a list of public officials who were convicted of crimes but continued to hold office.
Marion Barry
Barry was first elected mayor of Washington, D.C., in 1978. While he was still mayor in 1990, he was arrested for smoking crack cocaine in a Vista International hotel room with a friend who was working as an informant for the FBI and D.C. police.
He was sentenced to six months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. After his release from prison, he was elected to the Washington, DC City Council in 1992 and to a fourth term as mayor in 1994. He died in 2014 at the age of 78.
“The loyalty that people have to longtime public officials who are well-respected in their communities cannot be underestimated,” said Wesley Reckron, chair of the political science department at Widener University. “Being seen as someone who has helped constituents and stood up for the community for years, even decades, creates loyalty to a candidate. Former Washington Mayor Marion Barry is a great example of this.”
“He was seen as a pillar of the black community and someone who stood up for the interests of the poor. In many parts of Washington, voters believed he was framed because of his race, which allowed him to be reinstated even after his conviction. It also helps that he represents a one-party, solidly blue and red district,” LeCrone added.
Greg Gianforte
Gianforte pleaded guilty to assaulting a reporter on the eve of a congressional election in 2017. Ben Jacobs, then a reporter for The Guardian, said Gianforte body-slammed him during a campaign event and broke his glasses. The incident was recorded on audio, and a Fox News reporter said he saw Gianforte body-slam Jacobs and continue punching him.
Gianforte has apologized to Jacobs. The Montana Republican was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and take 20 hours of anger management classes. Gianforte was elected to the House of Representatives and served from 2017 to 2021. He has served as Montana’s governor since 2021.
Joseph Morrissey
According to CNN, Independent Rep. Joseph Morrissey of Virginia was re-elected to the state House of Representatives in 2015 while serving a six-month prison sentence.
According to the outlet, just a month before the election, Morrissey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for allegedly having a sexual relationship with his 17-year-old secretary, spending his days campaigning and his nights in jail.
Kevin Parker
New York Democratic Sen. Kevin Parker was convicted of misdemeanor battery in 2010 after a confrontation with a New York Post photographer and damaging the photographer’s equipment.
Parker has had run-ins with the law before: During his first term in 2005, he was indicted on assault charges for punching a traffic officer who wrote him a double-parking ticket, and in 2005, a former aide who publicly accused Parker of shoving and punching him accused him of intimidating her.
A rape lawsuit was filed against Parker last year.
Despite his conviction, he retained his seat in the state senate. He has been re-elected every two years since then and is running for re-election in 2024.
Vito Fossella
Republican Vito Forsella was serving in the House of Representatives representing New York’s 13th district when he was arrested for drunk driving in May 2008. He later admitted to having fathered a child from an affair and decided not to run for reelection, saying he needed to “focus on healing the hurt I’ve caused my wife and family.”
In October 2008, Fossella was convicted of a misdemeanor for drunk driving and sentenced to five days in jail. Despite the sentence, he was elected Staten Island Borough President in 2021.
Matthew Lyon
During the Quasi-War with France, Matthew Lyon, who represented Vermont in Congress, published editorials critical of President John Adams. According to Greenberg, Lyon was convicted of violating the Alien and Sedition Act in 1798. After being jailed, he ran for Congress and was re-elected to Congress that same year.
He was re-elected to the House of Representatives in 1802 as a representative of Kentucky, and was re-elected three more times until 1810, when he was defeated in part due to his opposition to the War of 1812, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
What about re-elected lawmakers facing indictments and investigations?
In addition to those convicted, others have been indicted or become involved in investigations after taking office.
For example, former Philadelphia Mayor John Street, a Democrat who was elected to his first term in 2000, was the subject of a federal corruption investigation but was still re-elected to a second term starting in 2004.
Similarly, former New York State Assemblyman Michael Grimm, who served in the House from 2011 to 2015, was indicted in 2014 on charges including mail fraud, wire fraud, health care fraud, filing false tax returns, perjury and obstruction of justice. Despite these charges, he was re-elected in 2014 but later resigned in December of that year after pleading guilty to tax evasion.
More recently, former Representatives Chris Collins (R-NY) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who were facing federal indictments, were re-elected to the House in the 2018 midterm elections. Collins resigned before pleading guilty to insider trading charges in 2019, and Hunter resigned after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit campaign finance misuse.
And some lawmakers currently facing indictments are running in the general election, such as New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who is on trial in lower Manhattan on federal corruption charges and seeking reelection as an independent.
Will Trump be added to this list of lawmakers?
Whether convicting Trump will hurt his reelection will depend on voter mood, and some polls suggest voters are broadly in favor and partly unified.
“US politics today is returning to the historical norm that characterized the US from its founding through the Cold War: polarization, with two camps deeply entrenched and drifting further and further apart on key philosophical issues,” said Matthew Schmidt, an associate professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven.
A CBS poll conducted May 30-June 1 found that 82% of Republicans believe the jury in Trump’s trial reached the wrong verdict, while 96% of Democrats believe the jury reached the right verdict. The same poll found that 81% of Republicans believe Trump is fit to be president, while only 2% of Democrats do so.
According to the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted May 31-June 1, Trump’s favorability rating has remained little changed since his conviction. About 31% of respondents have a favorable opinion of Trump, up slightly from 29% in the March poll. President Joe Biden’s favorability rating is in the same range, up from 33% in March to 32% now.
“Whenever he gets into legal trouble, Trump claims it’s political persecution,” Reckron said of Trump. “His supporters buy into the narrative that the ‘establishment’ is trying to take him down because he’s challenging them, and they do. His base appreciates this sentiment, and it makes them even more attached to him.”
