Trump said Clinton shouldn't run under investigation. Now he's running as a convict

WASHINGTON − Before Donald Trump was the first former president and presumptive major party nominee to be convicted of a crime, he argued that a candidate who faced possible indictment shouldn’t be allowed to run for president.

The year was 2016 and Trump, then the Republican nominee, was trying to capitalize on a Justice Department investigation of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. If Clinton were charged criminally and became president, he warned, it would “create an unprecedented constitutional crisis" and "grind government to a halt."

“Folks, folks, folks − she shouldn't be allowed to run. OK?” Trump told a raucous crowd at a rally on Nov. 5, 2016, in Reno, Nevada, pausing for emphasis on each word. He made similar comments at other rallies, including the day before in Concord, North Carolina.

Trump is now campaigning for president after losing one criminal case and still facing three others. A Manhattan jury unanimously convicted Trump last Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records by disguising as legal expenses reimbursements to his lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

But Trump has shown no signs of dropping out, issuing defiant statements and bragging that his fundraising spiked in the wake of his conviction.

A frequent talking point

Trump's opposition to presidential candidates with legal trouble was expressed in various stump speeches just days before the November 2016 election. Clinton was under investigation for her handling of classified email via a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

“If she were to win this election it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis,” Trump said in Reno. “In that situation we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial. It would grind government to a halt.”

After pausing to listen to a chorus of boos from the crowd, Trump continued:

“We need a government that can work and work well from day one for the American people. That will be impossible with Hillary Clinton, the prime suspect in a massive far-reaching criminal investigation. Her current scandals and controversies will continue throughout her presidency and will make it virtually impossible for her to govern or lead our country.”

In his North Carolina stump speech, Trump said a president under indictment “would cripple the operations of our government.”

“She has no right to be running, you know that. No right,” Trump said to sustained cheers from his supporters.

Why Trump isn't dropping out

Trump’s current situation is more severe than Clinton's because she was never charged with any criminal wrongdoing and Trump has been not only been charged but convicted in one of his four cases.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told USA TODAY that Trump's case is different from Clinton's, offering some descriptions of both cases that are at odds with key facts.

"The difference is that these are lawless witch hunts concocted by Crooked Joe Biden and his Department of Justice against his main political opponent in order to influence an election," Cheung said.

Two of the criminal cases against Trump were brought by locally elected district attorneys in Manhattan and Fulton County, Georgia, and Trump has produced no evidence of any involvement by Biden.

The other two cases were brought by Jack Smith as special counsel after he was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland appointed Smith after Trump said he would run for president as a way of ensuring that the investigations into various Trump controversies were independent and free of political interference.

When asked why Trump as president wouldn't "grind government to a halt" and create the same kind of constitutional crisis as Clinton would, Cheung did not respond except to say that Trump was being treated unfairly, and he attacked Clinton for her handling of her emails.

One down, three to go

Donald Trump's sentencing date has been scheduled for July 11 by the presiding judge in the case, Juan Merchan. He's out free at least until then.

The date sits between his first debate appearance against President Joe Biden and the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to officially be appointed the party's nominee.

Trump still faces criminal charges in the three other cases, including two for allegedly trying to illegally steal the 2020 election he lost to Biden. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

In all, Trump faced a combined 88 criminal counts, including the 34 in Manhattan. That leaves 54 counts among the three other cases, two of them in federal court that were brought by Smith on behalf of the Justice Department.

In one federal case, Smith charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, among other charges, for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election and prevent certification of President Biden's victory on Jan. 6, 2020. In the other, Trump is charged with willfully retaining classified documents after leaving office and conspiring to obstruct the investigation of his document retention.

The other case, in Georgia, accuses Trump and 14 co-defendants − including some of his former lawyers and administration aides − of trying to overturn Trump's loss in the state in 2020.

Last June, after the documents case was filed, Trump told Politico that he would stay in the race even if convicted.

“I’ll never leave,” Trump said in an interview aboard his plane. "These are thugs and degenerates who are after me.”

A conviction does not legally disqualify Trump from running for president. He is currently the presumptive Republican nominee for president and he is expected to lock up the nomination at the GOP national convention in Milwaukee in July.

'Lock her up!' – Trump comments on the Clinton investigation

In his 2016 campaign speeches, Trump railed against Clinton and stressed how the criminal investigations into her handling of emails made her unacceptable as a president candidate. He and his supporters made chanting "Lock her up!" a centerpiece of his rallies.

The week before his remarks in Reno, then-FBI director James Comey had publicly announced that the Justice Department and FBI had reopened an investigation into the email controversy, in a move that some Clinton supporters said helped cost her the election.

At the time, Trump said, “there's virtually no doubt that FBI Director Comey and the great, great special agents of the FBI will be able to collect more than enough evidence to garner indictments against Hillary Clinton and her inner circle despite her efforts to disparage them and to discredit them.”

Trump later fired Comey and blasted FBI agents, repeatedly, for investigating him and his campaign for potentially colluding with Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election on his behalf.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump once said indicted candidates shouldn’t run. What’s he say now?