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US poll shows 7 in 10 think Trump intentionally held on to classified documents

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. (Photo by US Department of Justice)

A new poll has shown that nearly seven in 10 of the Americans who were asked about the classified materials that were eventually recovered from former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida believed that he intentionally held on to secret documents after leaving the White House.

The  Quinnipiac University poll, which was published on Tuesday, showed sixty-nine percent of Americans think  Trump intentionally held on to classified documents and 18 percent think he mistakenly had classified documents in his possession while the rest had no opinion on the matter.

Americans’ views on Trump’s handling of classified materials differ largely along party lines. The majority of Democrats (87 percent) and independents (70 percent) think Trump intentionally held on to classified documents while less than half of the Republicans (48 percent) had this viewpoint. 

About 300 secret documents were found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, some 100 of which were found in an FBI search of the property last August, after the government obtained a search warrant amid concerns he had not turned over all the classified materials in his possession.

Also, 48 percent of Americans said that they believe US President Joe Biden purposefully took the classified materials found at his home in Wilmington, Del., and at his former office in Washington, DC, in recent months. Another 39 percent said Biden mistakenly took the classified documents.

Even fewer respondents said former Vice President Mike Pence intentionally held on to classified materials discovered in his Indiana home, with 47 percent saying it was a mistake. Democrats were even more likely than Republicans, 56 percent to 50 percent, to say that Pence inadvertently took the classified documents.

“A large majority of Americans figure former President Trump made a conscious decision to take them home, while his V.P., and to some extent his successor, are more apt to be given the benefit of the doubt,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.

The poll was conducted from Feb. 9 to 14 with 1,580 adults and had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.


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