I had done previous breakdowns based on party identification in Manhattan and D.C., but Emerson actually polled D.C. residents. And the results are highly predictable in a city that not only has a huge partisan lean but is also very political and in which a significant percentage of the informed populace is active in politics.
They also make a fair trial impossible.
A new Emerson College Polling survey in the nation’s capital asked D.C. residents if they would vote to find former President Donald Trump guilty in the trial over Trump’s efforts to subvert results of the 2020 election. A majority, 64%, of residents would vote to find Trump guilty, while 8% would find him innocent with 28% unsure.
Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling, said, “Perception of Trump’s guilt varies by gender: 75% of women would vote to find Trump guilty compared to 54% of men. Men are more likely to find the former president innocent at 12%, compared to 4% of women.”
But it’s unclear if that’s due to sex or political orientation. Men are more likely to be more conservative.
Democratic voters find Trump guilty 69% to 5%. Independents share a similar attitude: 53% think Trump is guilty and 14% innocent. Republicans are more split: 36% think Trump is guilty, 35% innocent and 30% unsure.
The 69% really reflects the sharp Democrat tilt of the city.
Generally, juries can be counted on to do their jobs except in the presence of extreme political pressure. That’s what happened with the George Floyd case and it’s happened a whole lot with juries in D.C. to the point that there’s a good argument to be made that the city’s jurors are more fundamentally tainted than that of most other places.
The obvious reason to bring cases in D.C. is to benefit from that political bias. It’s why the classified documents case was initially brought to a D.C. grand jury rather than a Florida one.
The bottom line is that D.C. has a politically tainted jury pool. No verdict in a political case there can be considered legitimate anymore.