NEW YORK - Former US president Donald Trump has been indicted on more than 30 charges relating to a $130,000 (£105,000) hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of his 2016 election win.

Trump has become the first serving or former president to be indicted in a criminal case, which comes as he prepares his bid for the 2024 presidential election.

Although the exact charges have yet to be made public – they will be read to Trump during his arraignment on Tuesday – they relate to the payment made to Daniels after she began offering to sell her story about an alleged dalliance the pair had in 2006, when he was married to his current wife Melania Trump.

While the payment is not illegal, the record of the payment does not state its true purpose and prosecutors have claimed this is falsification of records. There could also be charges relating to whether the records amount to a breach of election law.

So, can Trump still run for president while facing criminal charges?

Yes. In fact, Trump could not only run for president while facing criminal charges but he could do so if found guilty. There's nothing to stop him running the country from prison were he tried, found guilty and sentenced to jail time.

Donald Trump could be facing more than 30 charges

However, the reality is slightly different. While there are no rules to prevent Trump from running while facing criminal charges, there's a full roster of potential Republican candidates who would love a shot at the White House – and while some are holding back in deference to their former boss, no-one will thank him for fighting an election with an incumbent president while on the back foot.

And although his legal fight may galvanise his base – many of whom followed his line that he last election was "stolen" from Democrats – it's unlikely to play so well with middle-of-the-road Republicans and independent voters.

t should also go without saying that an ongoing criminal case for a potential presidential candidate immediately hands the opposition a big campaign win – although given that Trump is also the first president to have been impeached twice, he may care less about the optics of a potential criminal charge than other politicians.

How a shared golf cart with a porn star led to Donald Trump's indictment

In a hypothetical match-up between Trump and incumbent president Joe Biden, the pair are evenly tied with 38% of the vote each (20% said they vote would for someone else), according to a Fox News poll – a huge uptick for Trump since November, when a similar matchup showed Biden 10 points ahead.

Average polling from FiveThirtyEight shows 41.7% of Americans think favourably of Trump, while 53.6% think unfavourably of him.

The former president has denied any wrongdoing related to the charges against him, and described the case as "political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history".