Trump hush money charges seen as serious by most voters

WASHINGTON — The New York criminal charges against Donald Trump for allegedly covering up hush-money payments to a porn star are serious in the eyes of a firm majority of U.S. voters, a Reuters/ipsos poll found ahead of the former president’s trial starting next week.

Some 64 per cent of registered voters in the five-day poll, which closed on Monday, described the charges as at least “somewhat serious,” compared to 34 per cent who said the charges lacked seriousness. The rest were unsure or didn’t answer.

The trial, due to begin this coming Monday, is the first of four criminal prosecutions of Trump, the Republican challenger to Democratic President Joe Biden in a November election.

Legal experts have signaled that the other three cases — which involve charges Trump engaged in electoral fraud or mishandled classified documents — are considerably more serious than the alleged hush money payments.

But Reuters/ipsos polling showed that any criminal conviction could take a heavy toll on Trump, who is locked in a tight race with Biden. Trump is the first current or former U.S. president to face criminal prosecution.

Roughly four in 10 Republican respondents considered the hush money charges to be serious, as did two-thirds of independents.

New York prosecutors charge that Trump covered up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in exchange for her silence before the 2016 presidential election about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump denies that the encounter took place and has pleaded not guilty.