With former US President Donald Trump now formally charged on criminal charges, a majority of Americans (53%) believe he intentionally did something illegal, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, ABC News reported.
An additional 11% say he acted wrongly but not intentionally. Only 20% believe Trump did not do anything wrong, and 16% say they don't know.
As part of the Tuesday charges against the former president, Manhattan prosecutors alleged that Trump engaged in a "scheme" to boost his election chances during the 2016 presidential race through a string of hush money payments made by others to boost his campaign, and then "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records" to conceal that criminal conduct.
A "statement of facts" paired with the 34-count indictment alleges that Trump discussed the scheme while he was in the Oval Office and made reimbursement payments to his lawyer for a year while in office.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts and has long denied any wrongdoing.
Democrats are largely convinced of Trump's culpability, with 87% saying he intentionally did something illegal, and a majority of independents (57%) agree.
Of note, the former US president is enjoying weaker-than-usual support from his own partisans with only a plurality of Republicans (45%) thinking Trump did nothing wrong, and the rest of the party split among the belief he intentionally did something illegal (19%), he was wrong but it was unintentional (18%) or they simply do not know (17%).
Former US President Donald Trump faces up to 136 years in prison on 34 counts of first-degree falsification of the Trump Organization's financial statements.
But the actual sentence will most likely be much less if the former head of the White House is found guilty of some or all of the charges, the journalists made a reservation.
