Majority says Trump should be prosecuted on charges linked to 2020 election: survey

A majority of Americans says former President Trump should be prosecuted on federal criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a survey published Wednesday. 

The national Quinnipiac University poll showed 54 percent of Americans said Trump should face federal criminal charges, while 42 percent said he should not be prosecuted for those alleged crimes. 

Independent voters, notably, said they support prosecuting Trump for the alleged federal crimes in question by 20 points: 57 percent said they support, and 37 percent said they do not. 

Nearly all Democrats, 95 percent, said Trump should be prosecuted for the election-related crimes, while 5 percent said he should not be; 12 percent of Republicans said he should be prosecuted, and 85 percent said he should not be.  

The poll was conducted between Aug. 10-14, before the former president was indicted in Georgia on charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

Trump has also been charged in federal court over his efforts to overturn the 2020 vote, as well as his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

In the same survey, nearly two-thirds of Americans — 64 percent — said they thought the federal charges related to the 2020 election were serious, while about one-third — 32 percent — said they were not serious. Answers were similarly divided on party lines. 

“Not only do a large majority of Americans regard the federal charges as serious, more than half of Americans think the former president should face prosecution,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy said in the press release.

Almost half of respondents — 49 percent — said the federal election-related indictment doesn’t change their view of Trump, while 37 percent said they view him less favorably and 12 percent say they view him more favorably after the indictment. 

Most Republicans said they either don’t hold a different opinion of Trump after the federal indictment — 59 percent — or they have a more favorable view of him now — 28 percent. Only 11 percent of GOP respondents said the indictment makes them view Trump less favorably.  

Trump’s support among potential GOP voters has remained high and mostly steady in the recent weeks and months as the indictments made headlines. In the latest Morning Consult poll, updated Tuesday, Trump held the support of 57 percent of potential GOP primary voters, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s 16 percent, Vivek Ramaswamy’s 9 percent and former Vice President Mike Pence’s 7 percent. 

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,818 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.