Does running for president protect Donald Trump from legal issues? No.
By Louis Jacobson
By all indications, former President Donald Trump is preparing to announce his 2024 presidential bid, possibly as soon as an event Nov. 15 at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Could his status as a presidential candidate limit his exposure in several continuing legal battles? Legal experts told Politifact that Trump wouldn’t benefit in any official way by formally announcing his candidacy, especially two years ahead of the next election. And the unofficial benefits would be modest at best. “While being a declared candidate doesn’t afford him any legal protections, it does enable him to claim that any investigation is politically motivated,” said Elise Bean, a former congressional investigator for then-Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who now works for the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at the Wayne State University Law School.