The first criminal trial facing former President Donald Trump is also the one in which Americans are least convinced he committed a crime, a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds.
Key findings:
- Only about one-third of U.S. adults say Trump did something illegal in the New York hush money case, while close to half think he did something illegal in the other three criminal cases pending against him.
- A cloud of doubt hangs over all the proceedings. Only about 3 in 10 Americans feel that the prosecutors who have brought charges against Trump are treating the former president fairly. And only about 2 in 10 Americans are extremely or very confident that the judges and jurors in the cases against him can be fair and impartial.
- Still, half of Americans would consider Trump unfit to serve as president if he is convicted, indicating that public opinion of the trial proceedings, and its outcome, could hurt him politically.
