Trump indictment: 4 findings from polls on Americans' views on fmr. president's arrest, election chances

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, April 04, 2023

Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom with his attorneys Joe Tacopina and Boris Epshteyn (R) during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023, in New York City. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts stemming from hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. With his indictment, Trump will become the first former U.S. president in history to be charged with a criminal offense. | Andrew Kelly-Pool/Getty Images

As news of former President Donald Trump’s indictment by a grand jury in Manhattan continues to dominate the global news cycle, polls taken in the past week have shown conflicting results as to how the American public views his latest legal battle and its impact on the forthcoming 2024 presidential election.

The indictment, which remained under seal for much of the past week since news of the grand jury decision first broke on Thursday, deals with a payment made to former porn star Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) leading up to the 2016 presidential election. In 2019, Trump’s longtime attorney turned adversary Michael Cohen testified to the House Oversight Committee that his former boss “asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and lie to his wife about it, which I did.”

Cohen presented the committee with “a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer” he sent to the former adult film star’s attorney “during the closing days of the presidential campaign” so she would “maintain her silence about her affair with Mr. Trump.” In 2021, the Federal Election Commission decided not to pursue the payment as a possible violation of federal campaign finance law.

Trump has already announced his intention to run in the 2024 presidential election and his campaign has put out a statement insisting that the candidate has done nothing wrong and that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where the indictment was handed down, did not have the authority to prosecute the case. “When these payments were made, President Trump was a candidate for federal office,” the statement asserted.

“However, the New York DA does not have jurisdiction to prosecute alleged federal campaign finance violations. The allegations in question are almost seven years old. The New York DA’s office is relying on a loophole to get around the statute of limitations in their unprecedented attack.”

The indictment of a former president who is also the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination 18 months before the next presidential election has sent shockwaves through the American political landscape and prompted pollsters to measure public opinion surrounding the events of the past week.

Here are four findings from polls taken since Trump's indictment.