Former President Donald Trump has been indicted for the third time this year. The latest charges against Trump stem from his alleged role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman explains what the charges mean for the 2024 race.

 So I want to segue into our next topic, which sort of is related to what we’re talking about. About that sort of descent if you will, within the U.S. government and inability to get some of this stuff done. And it has to do with former President Donald Trump, who has now been indicted over his role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The indictment, which was filed Tuesday includes four criminal counts. The first, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. The second and third charges revolve around obstruction of the procedural vote count at the Capitol on January 6. And the final charge is related to conspiracy over Trump’s efforts to overturn results in states with close vote counts.

Remember, this is Trump’s third indictment this year. In March, he was indicted in connection to a hush-money scheme involving payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. In June, he was indicted in connection to his handling of classified documents and taken together the four charges laid out against Trump in the 2020 election case, the one that was just filed, carry a maximum potential sentence of 55 years in prison.

Let’s bring in Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman to talk about all of this. Rick, I just laid out the other indictments, right? This, though, is the one, right? This is the one that really gets to the heart of democracy, if you will. And his potential challenges to it.

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, I guess you could say that. Although, legal analysts say that the last set of charges in the documents case is actually a little bit more straightforward than this one. But the documents case. Let’s remember, that is filed in Florida. So when that goes to trial it will be a jury of Floridians from Trump’s home State.

This one is in the District of Columbia, where Trump in theory would probably have a less friendly jury. So the charges are spread all around. And I don’t know, if Trump were to get elected President in 2024 maybe Fitch would downgrade the U.S. credit rating again.

But it’s just a head spinning series of events here. And Donald Trump is actually polling higher among Republicans by about 10 percentage points than he was before any of these charges were filed. So these charges are actually making Trump more popular among Republicans and they are a fundraising boon for him.

Every time he gets charged with crimes his fundraising spikes. So this is just a phenomenal development in American politics. And it’s going to be fascinating to see how this actually plays out.

Speaking of how it plays out. Rick, remind us what are the implications if he is elected again with these criminal charges hanging over him?

RICK NEWMAN: The biggest question I think for the 2024 election is whether any of these cases will actually go to trial and be complete by the time two things happen. One is by the time the Republican primaries are over and the second is obviously, by the time of the general election. So the New York City case. That trial is scheduled for next spring.

The Florida documents case. That trial is scheduled for next May. And we don’t know yet when this third set of charges will go to trial but legal analysts are saying that it’s a streamlined set of charges. So the prosecutor Jack Smith could have brought other charges against Trump but they would have been a little more complicated and they and they might have led to more delays.

So this third set of charges does seem designed to get to trial quickly. Now, these trial dates could slip. Trump doesn’t want any of these trials to happen until after the 2024 election. And of course, the Justice Department wants to get these over and done with before the election.

So that is the biggest thing to watch for. I mean, it is very possible that Trump is going to be a convicted felon facing jail time by the time of the 2024 election. So puzzle that one out. That’s never happened. Nothing like that has ever happened before.