He replaced Nixon but lost to Carter, but I think his defeat may have just been attributed to low approval of the Republican Party and not Ford, or both? I don't know?
No, he would have not necessarily went to jail already. The first time he went to court on the trespass was for the trespass case. By being found guilty of that (or being arrested for it) he apparently violated his probation on an older case. That requires a probation revocation hearing on the...