55% Of The Public View The Trump Indictment As "Politically Motivated"; Harvard Poll Finds
_Authored by Jonathan Turley,_ (https://jonathanturley.org/2023/06/18/harvard-poll-55-percent-of-the-public-view-the-trump-indictment-as-politically-motivated/)
**A Harvard/Harris poll is bad news for Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department.** The poll shows that 55% of Americans believe Trump’s indictment is politically motivated and 56% believe that it constitutes election interference. The poll captures the level of distrust for the Justice Department and further demonstrates what I described yesterday as the failure of Merrick Garland at the midpoint of his tenure as Attorney General (https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4054455-the-utter-failure-of-merrick-garland/).
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)The view of the case appears to be worsening. Now there is less than a majority viewing the indictment as well-founded and justified. **The poll shows that 83% of Republicans and 55% of Independents view the indictment as a political exercise.** Not only do 56 percent view it as election interference but only 44 percent see it as “the fair application of the law”:
> Harvard Harris Poll:
>
> — 55% of Americans say Trump's indictment is politically motivated, (including 83% of Republicans and 55% of Independents)
>
> — 56% consider Trump's federal indictment to be an interference by the Justice Department in the 2024 Elections pic.twitter.com/9UtnV0UtD2 (https://t.co/9UtnV0UtD2)
>
> — InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) June 16, 2023 (https://twitter.com/IAPolls2022/status/1669821737658097665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
**The poll is also bad news for Biden.** Some 65 percent believe Biden “mishandled” classified material while 72 percent take that view with Clinton’s email scandal.
The Justice Department and the media appear to have“lost the room” (https://jonathanturley.org/2023/06/13/doj-fatigue-is-special-counsel-smith-singing-to-an-empty-room-2/) with the American people. They are primarily appealing to Democrats who (at 80%) support the indictment.
**The FBI and the Justice Department made this perception worse through continual leaks to the media and allegedly staging the photo (https://jonathanturley.org/2022/09/01/fbi-faces-criticism-over-release-of-photo-of-classified-documents-on-floor/) above after the raid on Mar-a-Lago.**
By his own measure, Garland has failed to restore the credibility and trust in the Justice Department. It now appears worse than when his predecessor, Bill Barr, was in office (https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4054455-the-utter-failure-of-merrick-garland/).
**It is also an indictment of the media. After years of “advocacy journalism” and biased reporting, the public now tunes out the media.** This is a strong indictment with troubling allegations and evidence. Yet, it does not matter because the medialong ago lost much of the country (https://jonathanturley.org/2021/01/22/trust-in-the-media-hits-an-all-time-low-in-new-polling/) with one-sided, unrelenting coverage.
**It also means that this case could conceivably never see a jury unless Special Counsel Jack Smith succeeds in pushing for a speedy trial before the election.** A majority of the public now supports a pardon (https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1670173149596450817) for Trump if he is convicted. With these polls, the pressure of other Republican candidates to pledge a pardon is likely to increase. Indeed, as suggested in another column (https://jonathanturley.org/2023/06/17/covering-the-special-counsel-spread-the-betting-on-trump-is-based-on-the-wrong-question/), Biden may want to consider a pledge to commute any sentence to try to defang this building election issue.
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 06/18/2023 - 21:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/55-public-view-trump-indictment-politically-motivated-harvard-poll-finds