In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that a 54 percent majority of Americans believed Donald Trump should be criminally charged for inciting the riot. As the Post reported this morning, public attitudes apparently haven’t changed much.
Sixteen months after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, a slight majority of Americans say former president Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for urging his supporters to march to the building on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The poll finds 52 percent saying Trump should be charged and 42 percent saying he should not.
In the abstract, results like these may seem like little more than political curiosities. After all, indictments are not the results of popularity contests.
But as a practical matter, it’s not quite that simple. A variety of officials in positions of authority have decisions to make about how, whether, and when to hold the former president responsible for his alleged misconduct, and the fact that most Americans support charging Trump is likely to help stiffen spines.
The New York Times reported a month ago, for example, that as far as congressional investigators on the Jan. 6 committee are concerned, there’s ample evidence that Trump broke the law by obstructing a congressional proceeding and conspiring to defraud the American people. Members of the bipartisan panel, however, have reportedly struggled to come to a consensus about whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.
Two weeks earlier, a federal judge released a ruling in a civil case that concluded Trump “likely attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress” on Jan. 6, which would be a crime.








