Americans split on whether Trump will, should be convicted in hush money case: Poll

Americans are split on whether former President Trump will be convicted in his New York hush money case, according to a poll released Friday.

The Economist/YouGov poll found that 24 percent of Americans think the former president is going to be convicted of a crime in the case, 36 percent said they don’t think the former president will be convicted and 39 percent said they weren’t sure.

The same poll found that 43 percent of Americans think Trump should be convicted of a crime in the case, 37 percent say they think he shouldn’t be and 20 percent are unsure.

Trump’s New York hush money trial began Monday, marking the first criminal trial of an American president. The former president has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to reimbursements to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who paid a porn actress $130,000 prior to the 2016 election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump, which he denies having. 

Following the second day of jury selection in his trial, Trump referred to the reimbursements as a “legal expense,” putting some blame on his accountants.

“I was paying a lawyer, and we marked it down as a legal expense — some accountant. I didn’t know,” Trump told reporters. “Mark it down as a legal expense. That’s exactly what it was. And you get indicted over that?”

A recent Yahoo News/YouGov also found 57 percent of Americans saying “falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star” is a “serious crime.” Thirty percent said the same crime is “not serious,” while 14 percent said they are not sure.

The Economist/YouGov poll was conducted April 14-16 and has a margin of error of 3.2 percent and features 1,574 respondents.