Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee for the November 2024 US presidential election, is no stranger to the courtroom. In January 2024, a jury in New York ruled that he would have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll millions of dollars in damages for sexually abusing and then defaming her, a decision that Trump is appealing. That was a civil case.

Now, Trump is about to become the first former US president ever to go on trial for criminal charges. The case, which will be heard in a New York court beginning on April 15, centers on whether he paid hush money to bury stories about an extramarital sexual encounter with a porn star to protect his 2016 campaign for the White House.

It's the first of four criminal trials — two state and two federal — that Trump has coming up. The other state case centers on alleged attempts to overturn his loss in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election; one federal case charges that he knowingly pushed election fraud lies in 2020to try to stay in power; and another charges that he illegally retained classified government documents when he left the White House, a violation of the Presidential Records Act.

Yes. No matter how any of these cases end, Trump will still be able to run for president. The US Constitution sets only three eligibility requirements for persons........

© Deutsche Welle