A majority of Americans do not believe Donald Trump committed a crime in the case that is currently being prosecuted in New York City.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump helped falsify business records to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet her claims that she had sex with the former president. Trump has denied the claims as well as that there was a coverup.
In the case, currently in Day 2 of jury selection in Manhattan state Supreme Court, prosecutors say that Trump concealed his $130,000 reimbursement of the payments by former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and committed 34 felonies in the process while trying to keep Daniels out of the public eye ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
But the new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs research poll finds that just 35% of U.S. adults say Trump did something illegal in the case. Another 31% thought what he did was unethical but not illegal, 14% said he did nothing wrong and the final 19% said they didn't know enough to say whether he did anything illegal.
A majority of the respondents also believed that Trump was not being treated fairly by Bragg — or that the judge and jurors can be impartial, the AP found.
Still, half of Americans would consider Trump unfit to serve as president if he is convicted of falsifying business documents to cover up hush money payments to a woman who said he had a sexual encounter with her, AP reported.
While they're skeptical of his guilt on the hush money trial, close to half think he did something illegal in the other three criminal cases he faces.
Trump is also accused of hiding classified documents found at his Florida home, attempting to interfere in Georgia's vote counting in the 2020 election and attempted to overturn the results of the election.
