On Thursday, former President Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts in his New York "hush money" trial.
The trial lasted roughly six weeks. This week, the jury deliberated for a total of 9.5 hours over the course of two days before reaching a verdict.
In 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) charged Trump with 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. As Katie noted, Bragg's team didn't focus on proving the fraud charges. Instead, prosecutors honed in on "hush money payments" and focused on irrelevant details of an alleged affair.
Now, a new poll from CBS/YouGov is showing that 54 percent of Independent voters think that Trump received a fair trial. Forty-six percent of Independent voters said that it was unfair.
Fourteen percent of Republicans and 96 percent of Democrats said that Trump got a fair trial. Eighty-six percent of Republicans and 4 percent of Democrats said Trump got an unfair trial.
When asked if Trump is fit to be president following the verdict, 40 percent of respondents said “Yes,” 51 percent said “No,” and 8 percent said “Not sure” (via CBS News):
In all, the verdict doesn't elicit any one widespread emotion from the country. Democrats feel mostly glad and relieved, but not many say they're hopeful. Republicans are more disappointed than angry, but not particularly surprised. (Respondents could express multiple feelings.)
Most Republicans don't think Trump was convicted of serious crimes in this case. Among those who feel the jury reached the wrong verdict, six in 10 say the crimes are "not at all serious." And they by and large feel Trump was treated worse than most other criminal defendants.
There's also disagreement on what punishment fits the crime, if any. Most Americans do not say Trump should serve time in prison for his conviction, but views here are also very partisan.
“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump said after the verdict was announced on Thursday. “The real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people. They know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here.”
A day after the verdict, Trump's campaign announced that he raised over $34.8 million, which Townhall covered.
"From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small dollar donors," Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a joint statement.
