What If Trump is elected with criminal charges still looming?

If former President Donald Trump won the presidency even as criminal charges against him still loomed, a series of extraordinary complications would ensue.

The indictment Tuesday on federal charges stemming from his attempts to remain in power after his 2020 election loss added to the mounting legal peril Trump, the front-runner for the Republican Party, faces as he campaigns for a second term in the White House.

In New York, he is accused of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment while special counsel Jack Smith also previously accused Trump of mishandling national security secrets.

If a federal case were pending on Inauguration Day, Trump could simply use his power as president to force the Justice Department to drop the matter, as he has suggested he might do.

(It is not yet clear when a trial over his efforts to overturn...