With so many legal challenges, can Donald Trump run for President

Former US president, Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan District Attorney's office, following a probe related to hush money payments to a porn star with whom he allegedly had a sexual relationship.

Trump went on to become the first former US president to face criminal charges in the run up to the election bid he has been making.

The Manhattan probe is among the many legal challenges that Trump has been facing. The indictment remains sealed and hence the charges against him are unknown.

Trump incidentally is the first US president to be impeached twice. He was charged with inciting an insurrection just a week before a violent mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

With him facing so many hurdles, the question that arises is if Trump can run for president again. According to a report in the Washington Post, the answer is yes. These legal challenges do not bar him from running for president again.

The Washington Post while citingAnna G Cominsky, a professor at the New York Law School said that even a potential conviction would not disqualify him from running for the White House.

"There are actually not that many constitutional requirements to run for president," she also said.

There is no explicit prohibition in the Constitution in respects to having a pending indictment or even being convicted, Cominsky also said.

Richard Hasen, law professor at the University of California said that nothing stops Trump from running while indicted, or even convicted.

The Constitution only requires three things of candidates and they must be a natural born citizen, a person of 35 yers and a resident of the US for the at least 14 years.

A report in The Fortune said that the Constitution does not require that the President be free from indictment, conviction or prison. It follows that a person under indictment or in prison may run for office and may even serve as president. The fact of his indictment and potential trial is irrelevant to his disqualification for office under the Constitution, the report also said.

A clean criminal record is not among the criteria the Constitution sets for who is eligible to be president. If he was convicted for a felony in New York, then Trump would be barred from voting in his adoptive home state of Florida, CNN said in a report.

Reports in the US media said that the indictment and subsequent legal proceedings could affect Trump's candidacy in both a positive and negative way. Some advisers are of the view that the indictment could be a good thing for his campaign.