Less than half of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI, after the raid on former President Trump’s Palm Beach home Mar-a-Lago, according to a new Convention of States/Trafalgar poll.
When asked their opinion on the FBI and Department of Justice, DOJ, 46.2% of respondents said they are “too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted.”
The respondents were split along party lines, with almost half of people with no party affiliation and 68.3% of Republicans saying the FBI and DOJ are “too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted.”
Among respondents with Democrat affiliation, 73.7% said the DOJ and FBI are “to be respected for their pursuit of justice and law and order.”
When pollsters asked if the DOJ’s investigation into the former president was intended to prevent him from running for president again in 2024, the overall responses were split evenly, with half agreeing and half disagreeing with the raid to stop Trump’s possible White House bid. Only 3% of respondents were unsure.
While 77.3% of Democrat survey respondents did not believe the DOJ focused on trying to prevent Trump from running for the highest office again, 71.5% of Republicans thought it was.
Among respondents who did not identify as either Republican or Democrat, 47.8% did not believe the DOJ is trying to keep former President Trump off the ballot with its investigation, while half believe it is.
The Convention of States/Trafalgar poll found that the U.S. is evenly split over whether the DOJ and FBI are telling the truth about their reasons for raiding the former president’s home, with 72.8% of Republicans not believing them and 77% of Democrats believing the agencies are telling the truth.
Slightly more people unaffiliated with a party and independents believe the FBI and DOJ are not telling the truth about the Florida raid.
Criticism of raid from GOP was swift; Cuomo critical
While criticism from the GOP was swift after the August 8 raid, former Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo offered surprising criticism when he called for the Department of Justice to explain itself.
“DOJ must immediately explain the reason for its raid & it must be more than a search for inconsequential archives, or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation & legitimacy of the January 6 investigations,” tweeted Cuomo on August 9.
The most significant survey participants were the 45-64 age range, followed by 65 and older. Respondents were predominantly white. Fewer Republicans than Democrats participated — 35.6% versus 39.3% — while those unaffiliated with either party comprised 25.1% of respondents.
When broken down by gender, fewer males, 46.7%, than females, 53.3%, participated.
The poll surveyed 1,092 likely voters in the general election with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
