Reporters at most of the cable news networks have been unable to contain their giddiness over Donald Trump's ongoing "hush money" trial in Manhattan. They have been breathlessly covering each phase of the trial, basking in every move made by the obviously biased judge as he works to silence (and potentially jail) the former president. That includes CNN, where the hosts have quickly cut away from other breaking stories each time a new detail emerges. But the folks at CNN must have been disappointed by the results of their own poll where they asked if Trump is being "treated the same as other criminal defendants." It's an important question, of course, because equal treatment under the law is one of the fundamental principles of democracy. Unfortunately for them, only 13% of respondents said that this was the case in Manhattan. As with most things involving Trump, the public was largely divided as to whether the court was going too hard on him or too gently. 

As the first criminal prosecution of a former American president began just 13% nationwide feel Donald Trump is being treated the same as other criminal defendants, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds. Most of the country was divided over whether he is being treated more harshly (34%) or more leniently (34%) than other defendants.

The poll, which began fielding a few days after the trial’s jury selection phase kicked off April 15, finds only 44% of Americans express confidence that the jury chosen for the case will be able to reach a fair verdict, while 56% more skeptical that a fair outcome is in the cards. More see Trump’s behavior during the trial thus far as inappropriate (42%) than appropriate (25%), with about a third saying they haven’t heard enough to say.

Those assessments of how things are playing out in the courtroom come as a rising share of Americans say the charges in the ongoing trial – related to allegedly falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to an adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election – are irrelevant to his fitness for the presidency even if true (45% say so now compared with 39% last summer, before he became the presumptive Republican nominee for president).

I have long since passed the point where I'm able to be shocked by the bias that is exposed in virtually every poll involving Donald Trump and this one is no exception. You can love Trump or hate him, but the events playing out in that courtroom are simply a clown show. Judge Juan Merchan (a Biden donor with a daughter who is a political consultant making money off of the trial) has fumbled this case at every turn, insisting that Trump be present each day to keep him off the campaign trail when almost any other defendant would be allowed to simply let their attorneys handle most of the work. The gag order he imposed on Trump while allowing the witnesses against him to speak freely seems blatantly unconstitutional.

Despite all of these obvious problems, an equal percentage of respondents (34%) said that Trump was either being treated more harshly or more leniently than less famous defendants. Perhaps more tellingly, a solid majority did not believe that the jury, drawn from a district where an overwhelming percentage of voters backed Joe Biden, could deliver a fair verdict. The divide over whether or not the final verdict in the trial will impact people's decisions in November is similarly split. Most of the people who support Donald Trump don't care about the outcome, while the vast majority of people who believe it will matter probably would never have voted for him anyway.

As to the underlying merits of the trial itself, as noted above, these proceedings are riddled with more holes than a brick of swiss cheese. During an interview this week, legal analyst and law professor Jonathan Turley (a Democrat) said that the case is "quickly becoming incomprehensible." It was based on a stacked set of misdemeanors that have long since passed the statute of limitations and which both state and federal jurists had rejected for potential prosecution for years. Yet Alvin Bragg (who also initially passed on prosecuting them) has now resurrected them like zombies and attempted to shoehorn them into felonies suggesting election interference. The witnesses they have assembled are a parade of convicted perjurers and tabloid artists. But that still may not stop the crew of Manhattanites that have been assembled to act as jurors from returning a guilty verdict just to bring down the Bad Orange Man. This has all been an unsettling spectacle, to say the least.

Here's the interview with Turley in case you missed it. It's rather brief.