A similar number of U.S. adults view both Hunter Biden and Donald Trump as having committed a criminal act which more people think they should be imprisoned for than not, according to exclusive polling conducted on behalf of Newsweek.
The survey of 1,500 eligible voters, conducted on April 4 by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, found that 46 percent thought the former president was guilty of a crime, while 42 percent believe the current president's son was.
It comes as Trump was arraigned in Manhattan last week on felony charges relating to allegations of hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump denies the charges against him and that he had an extramarital affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
At the same time, Hunter Biden has faced claims of shady overseas business dealings and a conspiracy theory that Joe Biden, the then-vice president, had intervened on his son's behalf to protect him from a corruption investigation in Ukraine. The House Oversight Committee is investigating the matter, while Hunter Biden has denied the allegations and threatened litigation against those who espoused them. He has not been charged with any crime.
In his public statements about the case against him, Trump has repeatedly alleged that the investigation into him and subsequent charges were politically motivated, noting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's affiliation to the Democratic Party. The former president has previously referenced the allegations against Hunter Biden.
The poll, conducted on the day of Trump's arraignment, found the largest proportion of those asked felt Trump had committed a crime and should be imprisoned, with 38 percent believing he had not. The next largest number felt Hunter Biden had, while 30 percent felt he had not.
The poll asked voters whether they believed various public figures had ever committed "a criminal act for which they should be imprisoned." Apart from Hunter Biden and Trump, the list included four other recent U.S. presidents, including Joe Biden, as well as Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr., Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical adviser to the president who became a figurehead of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In all other cases, apart from Trump and Hunter Biden, more respondents felt those named had not committed a crime than had.
Those who believe Trump and Hunter Biden were guilty of a crime fell largely along political lines, with 68 percent of Democrat voters in the 2020 presidential election agreeing Trump had, with the same number of Republican voters believing Hunter Biden had.
Newsweek contacted Trump's campaign team and Hunter Biden's attorney via email for comment on Tuesday.
The poll suggests that both figures have been tarnished in the public eye by the allegations they each deny, but that the claims are unlikely at this point to influence voting intentions in the 2024 presidential race, which is widely anticipated to see Trump and Joe Biden face one another again. According to the most recent YouGov poll, the two are two points apart with Biden marginally in the lead.
Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records, all of which relate to his alleged involvement in a payment of $130,000 by Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen to Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Cohen has previously said he was reimbursed by Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty and, around the time of his court appearance, claimed on his Truth Social media platform: "THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS HAVE CRIMINALIZED THE JUSTICE SYSTEM. THIS IS NOT WHAT AMERICA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE!"
Early signs suggested that the case has so far improved his political prospects. Recent polling showed Trump had seen a rise in support among Republican voters in the presidential primaries since being charged. His campaign said it had raised $4 million in the 24 hours since the indictment was announced on March 30.
Trump confidants attempted to use the allegations against Hunter Biden to hurt his father's prospects of becoming president in the run-up to the 2020 election. Hunter Biden's now-famous laptop made headlines after the New York Post claimed emails found on it—after it had been taken to a computer repair shop in Delaware—related to suspicious business affairs.
The president denied the veracity of the story at the time, and his son has since requested an investigation into those he claims disseminated his personal data.
In March, the House Oversight Committee released a memo detailing bank transfers to members of the Biden family which it said had come from a Chinese energy company via a proxy. James Comer, the committee's Republican chair, suggested on March 19 that Trump's then-impending arrest was an "effort to detract" from the findings.
Legal representatives for Hunter Biden said the payment originated from his business interest in "a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China" and that the matter did not have any connection to President Biden.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more
