In new polling from YouGov and Yahoo! News, 49 percent of adults say that Donald Trump should not be permitted to serve as U.S. president again following his recent criminal conviction in New York City. Trump was accused there of dozens of felony counts of falsifying business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 presidential election for a woman named Stormy Daniels.
The disputed records covered what prosecutors said were reimbursements to former Trump ally Michael Cohen for providing Daniels the money rather than routine legal expenses. Trump was convicted on all counts and has a sentencing slated for next month. He was meeting with a probation officer on Monday ahead of probation authorities preparing their own recommendations for the judge handling Trump’s sentencing.
On whether Trump should be allowed to serve as president again, 40 percent said that he should be permitted to do so, while 11 percent were unsure.
Trump is, of course, currently running for president and on his way to Republicans’ presidential nomination for this year’s elections, which they’re set to finalize at convention proceedings just after Trump’s sentencing.
It’s unclear at this point whether the judge will impose any time in detention, which is something that he already threatened in a separate but related context: Trump’s gag order in this case, which blocked public attacks on witnesses, jurors, and others. Trump was found to have violated the order ten times (nine of which were established at once, meaning subsequent proceedings didn’t unfold ten separate times with Trump evading detention that long).
Legal attempts to push Trump from the ballot this year on the basis of argued involvement in inciting the 2021 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol failed at the Supreme Court. He now faces three additional criminal cases, though all these proceedings are somewhat stalled presently.
