WASHINGTON – According to a recent YSL News/Suffolk University Poll, a majority of Americans find it “wrong” for Donald Trump to instruct the Justice Department to drop federal charges against him if he regains the presidency.

Legal experts believe that there is little chance a Trump-led Justice Department would continue the federal cases he describes as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by a “deranged” prosecutor. However, nearly 58% of likely voters surveyed in the poll indicated that it would be “wrong” for Trump to ask the department to dismiss the charges. In contrast, 30% said it would be the “right” decision, while almost 10% remained undecided.

A comparable majority, 56%, argued that federal and state prosecutors should persist with the charges against Trump if he loses to Vice President Kamala Harris on November 5, versus 38% who disagreed, as per the poll. About 5% were undecided.

The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters by landline and cellphone between October 14 and 18, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Some voters voiced their views on the importance of holding Trump accountable just like any other individual facing criminal allegations.

“For him to dismiss the charges against himself or appoint someone to do it would be a greater violation than his original actions,” expressed Steve Morrissey, a 60-year-old engineer from Omaha, Nebraska, who supports Harris. “No one is above the law; the justice system should proceed as it would for anyone else.”

However, reactions to the poll were as divided as the current campaign. Some voters expressed concern about the implications of having a sitting president with ongoing criminal charges.

Cullie Gentry, 35, an oilfield worker from Rankin, Texas, and a Trump supporter, stated that it would be best to vacate the charges, regardless of the election outcome.

“I firmly believe he should be absolved of those charges,” Gentry said. “It’s perilous. We’re behaving like a Third World nation, where political opponents are prosecuted.”

Currently, Trump is facing several legal challenges, including:

• A sentencing hearing scheduled for November 26, which could coincide with Trump’s potential status as president-elect, regarding his felony conviction in New York for falsifying business records related to payments to a porn actress before the 2016 election.
• Ongoing trials in federal court in Washington and in Fulton County, Georgia, concerning allegations of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
• A federal judge has dismissed charges against Trump in Florida regarding the mishandling of classified documents post-presidency, though prosecutors are appealing this decision.

The findings of the YSL News/Suffolk University Poll mirrored earlier polls that indicated voters were worried about Trump’s legal transgressions and how they might influence their voting preferences.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted in September revealed that 46% of voters believed Trump had violated the law in attempts to alter the outcome of the 2020 election, while another 14% thought he did something inappropriate but not necessarily illegal. These figures have remained consistent since April.

Furthermore, an ABC News poll from May showed that 52% of respondents felt the charges relating to hush money in New York were serious, with one in five stating they would reconsider their support for Trump if he were convicted. He was indeed convicted later that month.

Some have suggested that if Trump wins the election, any legal proceedings might be postponed until his term is complete. The judges involved have yet to make a decision on this matter. Trump has implied that he could either grant himself a pardon or dismiss the prosecutor, special counsel Jack Smith, in the two federal cases against him.

Marcy Michaels, a retired nurse from Verona, Pennsylvania, who supports Trump, believes that the charges will vanish if he loses, as she feels they were aggressively pursued to hinder his reelection campaign. She expressed skepticism that Smith would have sought an indictment if a different Republican candidate were in the running, even though both Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland have stated that the indictments stemmed from a factual and legal basis.

“I think the intensity behind these charges is directly linked to how well he is polling as a nominee,” Michaels commented. “Sadly, I believe it’s driven by political motives.”

Windy Rhoads, a temporary worker in Santa Cruz County, California, and a supporter of Harris, anticipates that Trump would pressure the Justice Department to dismiss the charges if he is elected but hopes for the federal election interference trial to proceed.

“I believe that case is very strong. He incited a coup and invited people to come on January 6,” Rhoads stated. “I think he would have walked to the Capitol with them if the Secret Service had permitted it.” On January 6, 2021, Trump’s driver testified to a congressional committee that Trump requested to be taken to the Capitol that day, but the Secret Service declined.

Mara Mamerow, a software developer from Milwaukee who also supports Harris, expressed difficulty in imagining a president dealing with felony charges while in office.

“Do I believe those charges should be pursued? Yes,” Mamerow stated. “But I struggle to comprehend how that could work.”