(The Hill) – A majority of Americans believe former President Trump has done “something illegal” or “unethical,” according to a new poll.
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National Poll released Friday, found that 51% of Americans believe the former president has done “something illegal,” 27% said he’s done something “unethical,” but “not illegal,” and 19% said he’s done “nothing wrong.”
The results of the new poll come just one day after the Department of Justice (DOJ) levied new charges against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case for attempting to delete surveillance footage. The superseding indictment brings the total number of counts facing the former president in the classified documents case to 40.
The poll, however, was conducted before the new charges against Trump were announced.
The survey also found that the percentage of Democrats who think Trump has done “something illegal” has increased — up from 78% in June to 84%. The number of independents that believe the same also increased from 50% to 52% in the same period, according to the poll.
The number of Republicans that believe Trump’s actions are “illegal,” however, has remained steady at around 13%. But, as the poll notes, there was a dip the number of Republicans that believe Trump has done “nothing wrong” — going from 50% to 41% since June.
DOJ special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating Trump and his allies’ efforts to upend the 2020 election. The former president also faces another indictment from New York district attorney Alvin Bragg for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection to a 2016 hush money payment.
The survey of 1,285 respondents was conducted from July 25-27, with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.
