Voters broadly disagree with House Republicans’ priorities, polling shows

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to question FBI Director Christopher Wray. Republicans on the panel claim Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland have overseen the “politicization of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency.”

The baseless accusation that Wray has contributed to the “weaponization” of the FBI stems from the federal law enforcement agency’s August 2022 raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where agents found hundreds of classified documents stored in unsecure locations. Republican lawmakers also claim that Trump’s subsequent indictment for his alleged mishandling of classified documents, as well as his alleged obstruction of the federal government’s efforts to reclaim the classified material, was a “miscarriage of justice.”

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced in June that he was probing the FBI’s role in Trump’s indictment. Other GOP lawmakers have said they want to defund the special counsel’s office, which is leading the prosecution of Trump in the classified documents case.

But a new Morning Consult poll published Monday found most voters do not think Congress’ top priority should be investigating the Department of Justice’s probes into Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Just 34% of registered voters said they believe that should be Congress’ top focus.

In fact, not even GOP voters think investigating the Department of Justice’s Trump probes should be Congress’ main priority.

Less than one-third of Republican (32%) voters said they think Congress should focus on investigating the department’s probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents.

The same poll found that a majority of registered voters (58%) think Congress should prioritize addressing fentanyl trafficking into the United States.

“The average U.S. voter cares more about examining fentanyl trafficking and the Biden administration’s operations on the U.S.-Mexico border than either of the House’s DOJ investigations, suggesting that Capitol Hill’s focus on the political probes could be viewed as a distraction from the more pressing concerns of the wider electorate,” Morning Consult said of its poll findings.

Ultimately, Morning Consult’s poll found that 52% of voters approve of a federal grand jury’s decision to indict Trump for allegedly mishandling classified information.

A plurality of voters, 47%, think the grand jury that indicted Trump in the classified documents probe did so because there is evidence that Trump committed a crime, while 43% of voters say the indictment was based on “motivation to damage Trump’s political career.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 37 counts he faces, which range from violating the Espionage Act to making false statements to the FBI.

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the bench, has set a tentative Aug. 14 trial date. The federal government has already made a motion to delay Trump’s trial until December.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.