Half Of Americans Want Trump Prosecuted, Imprisoned: Quinnipiac Poll

Defeated US president Donald Trump should be prosecuted over his handling of classified documents after his departure from the White House, according to half of Americans, a Quinnipiac University poll shows, Billy House reported for Bloomberg News.

Photo Insert: The Justice Department's photos of White House records held in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago before the June FBI search.

As details are released about the FBI’s recovery of material from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the poll found 50% of those surveyed say Trump should face criminal charges, while 41% do not.

Among Republicans, fewer than 10% say Trump should be charged.

But 85% of Democrats and 52% of independent voters say he should, according to the survey of 1,584 US adults conducted between Aug. 25 and Aug. 29. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus-2.5 percentage points.

The survey was conducted before the Justice Department’s latest assertions in court filings that there was evidence of attempts to conceal the White House records held in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago before the June FBI search.

A full 67% say that the allegations against him are either "very" or "somewhat" serious, and 59% believe that Trump handled the classified documents inappropriately.

Reporting for The List, Shana Aborn wrote that the poll more broadly found 56% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, while 34% have a favorable opinion of him. This compares to July when 55% had an unfavorable opinion of the former president and 37% had a favorable opinion.

The Quinnipiac poll revealed another bit of bad news for Trump — President Biden's approval rating went up 9 points from July, bringing him to 40%. Quinnipiac poll analyst Tim Malloy calls it "a summertime surge," likely prompted by the student debt relief plan.

“Americans have been watching closely and have their own verdict: Former President Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents was very serious, very wrong, and half of Americans believe it was a criminal act,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.

More than three-quarters of those surveyed, or 76%, said they were following the news about the removal of the classified documents from Trump’s home, with 38% saying very closely and 38% saying somewhat closely.

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