Poll: 58% say Trump should be criminally charged for his role in the Jan. 6 riot

WASHINGTON – Nearly 6 out of 10 Americans want former President Donald Trump criminally charged in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, an ABC News/ipsos poll shows.

The poll found 58% of Americans say Trump should face criminal charges for the role he played in the riot, a higher percentage than in late April, when it was 52% in an ABC News/washington Post poll.

By party, the poll found that 91% of Democrats say the former president should be criminally charged, compared with 19% of Republicans.

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the riot on Jan 6, said Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week” that Trump is “guilty of knowing what he did” leading up to the attack.

“Obviously, you know we’re not a criminal charges committee, so I want to be careful in specifically using that language,” Kinzinger said. He said he thinks what the committee is “presenting before the American people certainly would rise to a level of criminal involvement by a president and definitely failure of the oath.”

The special committee investigating the Capitol attack held public hearings last week, spotlighting the intense pressure Vice President Mike Pence received from Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

A majority of those surveyed – 60% – say they believe the Jan. 6 committee is “conducting a fair and impartial investigation,” up from 40% in April.

The panel heard Thursday from witnesses who outlined Trump’s effort to lobby his vice president to reject electoral votes for Joe Biden during the official certification of state results.

The poll was conducted June 17-18 with a nationally representative probability sample of 545. It has a sampling error margin of 4.5 percentage points.