Fewer Americans believe hush money trial will end with Trump conviction: Survey

Fewer Americans believe former President Trump’s New York hush money trial will end in a conviction, according to a YouGov/Economist survey released Thursday. 

The dip, seen from respondents from both sides of the aisle, is in comparison to a similar poll last month. 

Around 39 percent of Democrats said in late April that Trump would be convicted. Now, the number stands at 34 percent. 

With independents, 21 percent believed in the conviction late last month; it is at 17 percent in new survey. With GOP voters, that belief dropped from 17 percent to 14 percent. 

Overall, only 22 percent of Americans think Trump will be convicted in the Manhattan case. Trump faces 34 felony counts for falsifying business records related to reimbursement to his former fixer, Michael Cohen, who paid a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, $130,000 to keep quiet about the alleged affair she claimed having in 2006 with the former president.

According to a similar survey released in mid-April, 24 percent of Americans thought that Trump would be convicted, while 36 percent said the former president would not end up with a conviction.

The views of the seriousness of the case have also slightly shifted since late April. 

Around 90 percent of Democrats believe the case is “very or “somewhat” serious, a 5-point uptick.

The increases with independents and GOP voters were marginal. 

Now around half, 50 percent of independents, believe the case is serious, 3 percentage points more than in late April. With Republicans, it grew from 23 percent to 25 percent.

The survey was conducted from May 5-7 among 1,813 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 3 percent.