57 percent in new poll say charges in Trump hush money case ‘serious’

A majority of Americans say the charges against former President Trump in his New York hush money case are “serious,” according to a new poll.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll found 57 percent of Americans agree “falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star” is a “serious crime,” a record high, according to Yahoo News. Thirty percent said the same crime is “not serious,” while 14 percent said they are not sure.

Trump’s New York hush money trial began Monday, marking the first criminal trial of an American president. The former president has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to reimbursements to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who paid an adult film actor $130,000 prior to the 2016 election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump, which he denies. 

Following the second day of jury selection in his trial, Trump referred to the reimbursements as a “legal expense,” casting some of the blame on his accountants.

“I was paying a lawyer, and we marked it down as a legal expense — some accountant. I didn’t know,” Trump told reporters. “Mark it down as a legal expense. That’s exactly what it was. And you get indicted over that?”

The poll also found most Americans, 57 percent, say that if Trump “is convicted of a serious crime in the coming months,” he shouldn’t “be allowed to serve as president again in the future.” Only 29 percent of Americans said he should be allowed to reenter the White House if convicted of a serious crime, while 14 percent said they were not sure.

Beyond his New York hush money case, Trump is also dealing with three other criminal cases, two federal and one in Georgia. The hush money case in New York was the first to go to trial.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll was conducted from April 11-15 with a sample of 1,746 adults, and it has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.

Updated at 11 a.m. EDT