After being convicted of falsifying documents to conceal a payment made to buy the silence of an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 elections, former U.S. President Donald Trump must await sentencing on July 11. The maximum penalty he faces is four years in prison, although it is common for sentences for such crimes to be shorter or for offenders to face fines or be placed on probation.
Media reports state that "Trump is not the first candidate in history to run for the presidency while having a criminal record." They added that "Eugene Victor Debs is the first candidate to run for the U.S. presidency from prison in 1920 and garnered nearly a million votes."
Who is Debs?
- Born in 1855, he became an advocate for labor issues from a young age.
- He was first sent to prison for six months following the Pullman strike in 1894 for violating a federal injunction against the strike.
- He became a committed socialist and a founding member of the American Socialist Party.
- He ran for president as a socialist in 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1912.
- However, in 1918, he was imprisoned for speaking out against U.S. involvement in World War I, which was a violation of the Espionage Act.
- His imprisonment in a federal prison in Atlanta did not diminish Debs' status at all, and in 1920, he was nominated again as a presidential candidate for the party.
The jury found Trump guilty of falsifying documents after a five-week trial that included testimony from adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Document forgery is typically classified as a misdemeanor in New York, but prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's office elevated it to a felony on the basis that Trump was concealing an illegal contribution to a campaign.
