Name: How Trump could mount a presidential campaign even if he's banned from office
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How Trump could mount a presidential campaign even if he's banned from office

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Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowSign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox.Something is loading.Here's a longshot but still plausible scenario: US senators from both parties gang up to convict former President Donald Trump of a fatal . Then they for federal office.Could Trump still try to mount a 2024 presidential campaign anyway?Quite possibly, three former Federal Election Commission chairpeople tell Insider. At least for a while.That's because it's easy for most anyone, from troublemaking to disgraced ex-presidents for a , to formally declare themselves a federal political candidate.Trump could try to run again simply to grab headlines, something he's been known to do before.Or he could do it just to raise gobs of money from the millions of supporters who've previously contributed. Again, not that crazy a scenario.Or he could just jump in to play the political provocateur role the country and wider world have grown quite accustomed to.&nbsp;Read more: &nbsp;Regardless, the FEC is the place where this kind of question would go for debate should Trump make such a move.But the independent regulatory agency, created in 1975 in the wake of President Richard Nixon's resignation from the Watergate scandal, is really just there to process and publish the formal candidate declaration paperwork of congressional and presidential hopefuls. It lacks power to evaluate declared candidates' eligibility for office, including that of former presidents.Say a 20-year-old files federal paperwork to create a congressional campaign committee despite being too young to run — something reminiscent of when , then a 15-year-old Iowa high schooler, formed the "" presidential campaign in 2015 and inspired hundreds of copy-catters to flood the FEC with bogus (and sometimes hilarious) presidential candidate filings.&nbsp; &nbsp;"There's no law or regulation under which the FEC could refuse to form the committee even though the candidate is constitutionally ineligible," said Trevor Potter, a former Republican chairman of the FEC who now leads the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit election watchdog organization.&nbsp;Determining a candidate's eligibility primarily falls to individual state governments, whose ballot-access laws are the primary firewalls between an ineligible federal candidate's campaign and that candidate appearing on an actual ballot.Let's back up for a moment: The Senate Tuesday and the upper chamber of the US Congress is scheduled to begin Trump's trial on February 9.&nbsp;Right now, it appears unlikely that it'll achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to convict Trump — particularly after 45 Republican senators on Tuesday to declare the entire impeachment trial unconstitutional.But like 2020 and 2019 and 2018 and 2017 — we could keep going here — the politics of 2021 are nothing if not unpredictable.Should the Senate somehow convict the ex-president and then in a subsequent vote decide to ban Trump from running for federal office, Trump might refuse to accept its ruling. That doesn't seem so far fetched considering he for weeks to accept the outcome of the 2020 election. And nobody could stop Trump from filing federal paperwork to run for president in 2024.If he did, expect matters to get sticky. Quickly."This would be novel territory," said Ann Ravel, a former Democratic chairwoman of the FEC. "Very novel."There are some possible solutions. Congress could conceivably attempt to amend federal election law — or even the Constitution, despite the Powerball-esque odds of success — to prohibit former presidents convicted at impeachment trials from ever again launching campaigns for federal office.The FEC, for its part, could attempt to pass a similar rule in a bid to prevent ineligible candidates from forming candidate committees.&nbsp;Or it might try to "" any new presidential campaign committee Trump decided to form, doing so on the grounds that Trump couldn't hold office."But what would that mean?" asked former Republican FEC Chairman Bradley Smith, who now leads the Institute for Free Speech, a nonprofit organization that supports political campaign deregulation. "He could then form 'Donald Trump for President Super PAC' and take unlimited contributions. Since the FEC would have ruled he wasn't a candidate, he wouldn't have to worry about coordination or anything else."This debate would be more than a matter of paperwork.Trump's 2020 presidential campaign committee — Donald J. Trump for President Inc. — remains open and active, even if Trump hasn't decided whether to run again in 2024.&nbsp;In fact, the committee reported more than $18.4 million cash on hand and about $11.3 million debt as of December 31, according to .&nbsp;It may continue to spend money, wind down its operations, and even earn money off investments while Trump mulls his future — and operates a newly formed political action committee he's calling , through which he's already raised millions since the November election.Representatives for Trump's presidential committee and Save America did not respond to Insider's request for comment.If Trump ran for president in 2024, he could continue using this old campaign committee or create a new one.&nbsp;He could also continue running as a Republican. Or, he could switch political parties; Trump has flirted with the idea of forming a "Patriot Party," and through his 2020 presidential committee, already .Federal law allows presidential campaign committees to transfer unlimited amounts of money they raise to national political party committees.But, as a practical matter, neither Trump nor the FEC could shut down his 2020 presidential committee any time soon, even if they wanted to. The FEC generally won't let presidential campaign committees officially terminate themselves until any and all federal investigations into their activities are completed.&nbsp;The Trump campaign is facing several FEC investigations, including one into its and another into how it doesn't publicly more than a dozen municipal governments say it owes.&nbsp;Read more: The FEC is also almost certain to audit the finances of Trump's 2020 campaign — something it does for most large presidential campaigns.&nbsp;Following a lengthy audit, the FEC in 2013 then-President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign $375,000 for campaign finance reporting violations.Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know.Subscribe to push notificationsAn icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.Keep readingIt indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowSign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox.Something is loading.Here's a longshot but still plausible scenario: US senators from both parties gang up to convict former President Donald Trump of a fatal . Then they for federal office.Could Trump still try to mount a 2024 presidential campaign anyway?Quite possibly,...

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Dave Levinthal

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How Trump could mount a presidential campaign even if he's banned from office

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