Most voters see Trump hush money charges as serious, poll finds

(The Hill) – Most voters in a new survey said they see former President Trump’s charges in the hush money case as at least “somewhat serious.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll, released Wednesday, found that roughly 64 percent of registered voters said the charges in the New York case are “somewhat serious.” Another 34 percent of respondents said the case “lacks seriousness,” and the rest were either unsure or did not respond.

The case is set to go to trial Monday and marks the first criminal trial of any former U.S. president. While it’s been considered less severe than his other legal battles, any conviction could be a hit to the former president’s reelection bid, the pollsters noted.

When broken down by party, around 40 percent of Republican respondents said the hush money charges were serious. Two-thirds of independent voters said the same, per the poll.

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Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payment by his former attorney Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Daniels — seen as a cover up for an alleged affair before the 2016 election. The former president has pleaded not guilty in the case.

His latest attempt to delay the trial was rejected by an appeals court Tuesday.

Respondents in the survey were more likely to say the charges in Trump’s other cases were more severe, specifically those around election subversion. Just under 75 percent of survey takers said his election charges were “serious,” according to the poll.

Around 60 percent of registered voters said Trump’s criminal trials, including being charged with the mishandling of classified documents, should take place before the November election. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four of his criminal cases.

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The former president has alleged the indictments, where he faces 88 charges in total, are “politically motivated” — a sentiment largely shared with GOP voters. Four out of five respondents in the poll said they agreed with the statement.

Still, per the survey, nearly 25 percent of Republicans said they would not vote for Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in November if he’s convicted of a crime.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online from April 4-8 among 1,021 adults, including 833 registered voters. For the full sample size, the margin of error was 3 percentage points.

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