A plurality of Americans say former President Donald Trump did not break the law in the hush money case against him – making the indictment filed by the Manhattan District Attorney , Alvin Bragg, the weakest in the court of public opinion.
According to the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Tuesday, only 35 percent of respondents say Trump, 77, acted illegally to conceal payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to protect her. to silence about an alleged affair with him. the married real estate mogul.
The survey also found that 31% of Americans believe Trump acted unethically, but not illegally, while an additional 14% believe the 45th president did nothing wrong at all. Nearly one in five Americans (19%) said they don’t know enough about the case to make a judgment.
Respondents were more confident in the three other pending cases against Trump, with 45% saying he acted illegally to stay in power after his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election and 47% believing he had violated the law to try to overturn the election. result in Georgia and to keep national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort after leaving office.
Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements he made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 Cohen paid Daniels in 2016 to stay silent on his alleged affair with the then candidate.
Trump has denied both any legal wrongdoing and having an affair with Daniels.
This secret money affair is the first time that a current or former American president has faced criminal charges.
Even though public confidence in the handling of the Trump cases is low – with only 31% believing prosecutors are treating the former president fairly – the presumptive Republican Party nominee still faces significant consequences if he is found guilty.
Exactly half of Americans say they would not consider Trump fit to be president if he were convicted in the financial silence case, including 15% of Republicans and 47% of independents.
The Manhattan trial also wastes Trump time on the campaign trail ahead of what will likely be a close election rematch against President Biden.
“I should be in Pennsylvania and Florida right now, many other states — North Carolina, Georgia — campaigning,” Trump said while appearing in court Tuesday.
“This is all coming from the Biden White House because this guy can’t put two sentences together.”
The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,204 Americans April 4-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
New York Post
