Brunswick Beacon, 04.20.23
Trump lost to Clinton by 3 million votes. He lost to Biden by 7 million. Finally, in 2023, Trump convinced a majority of voters to pick him. Unfortunately for Trump, the voters were grand jurors and their “ballot” was an indictment.
Trump didn’t just convince grand jurors - most Americans support his indictment. An NPR/PBS/Marist Poll found 75% of Americans believe Trump did something illegal or unethical. A Quinnipiac Poll found 65% of Americans think Trump is dishonest and 57% believe the indictment should disqualify him from running for president.
A CNN Poll found 70% of Americans believe Trump acted illegally or unethically and 60% approve of his indictment. The poll found majority approval across every demographic category: gender (62% of women, 58% of men), ethnicity (82% of Black adults, 71% of Hispanic adults, 51% of White adults), age (69% under age 35; 62% age 35-49; 53% age 50-64; 54% 65 or older) and education (68% with college degrees, 56% without).
Americans support Trump’s indictment because Trump’s Justice Department already proved the crime. In 2018, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and self-described “fixer,” was convicted of helping Trump fraudulently influence the 2016 election.
Cohen pleaded guilty to handling Trump’s payment, in October 2016, of $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. With the election just twelve days away, Trump wanted to keep Daniels quiet about their sexual relationship so it wouldn’t hurt his campaign. Prosecutors determined that Cohen “acted in coordination and at the direction of” Trump and that the payment was an illegal contribution that benefited Trump’s campaign. Justice Department policy prohibited charging Trump. It’s rationale: “The spectacle of an indicted president still trying to serve as Chief Executive boggles the imagination.”
Cohen got three years for following Trump’s orders. Now that he’s no longer president, Americans have no problem prosecuting Trump for the same crime that sent his “fixer” to jail.
Eric Terashima
Leland
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