What is Donald Trump's fate in hush money trial?

Experts have weighed in on whether former United States president Donald Trump will be convicted or not in his ongoing hush money trial amidst a high-stakes election campaign.

According to ex-US attorney Kevin C McMunigal, despite the strong case against Trump, it is unlikely that he will receive a jail sentence, the Mirror reported.

"In terms of consequences, I think there is almost no chance of him receiving a jail sentence given his age, the fact that he has no prior convictions, and that the offenses in the case are nonviolent and don’t appear to have caused any harm," McMunigal stated.

Trump, 77, is facing 34 charges of falsifying records and could potentially face 15 months to four years in prison for each charge.

However, most individuals convicted of this charge serve less than a year.

Hush money trial's effect on Trump's presidential campaign

Johnathan L Entin, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, predicts that the Republican presidential candidate will use the conviction proceedings in his favour in the election narrative.

He says that Trump will claim to be a victim of a Democratic campaign aimed to end his political career.

Entin said: "Trump will probably continue to claim this is evidence of a deep-state effort to prevent him from becoming president again.

"He will argue that the Manhattan prosecutor is collaborating with New York Attorney General Letitia James and that the trial judge is biased against him." 

Entin, who also doesn't anticipate jail time for Trump, believes that even if convicted, the ex-president's chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination or appearing on ballots would not be affected.

He cited the example of Eugene Debs, a 1920 Socialist Party's presidential candidate, who ran his campaign while serving a federal prison sentence for criticizing US involvement in World War I.