Two focus groups of swing voters who backed Donald Trump in 2016, but not in 2020 — or who voted for him in 2020 but regretted it — said they believe politics was a factor in the raid of the former president's South Florida estate, according to The Washington Post.
One group consisted of five white women from throughout the country and the other consisted of five white men.
The focus groups were conducted by a set of progressive groups. The Post was permitted to watch the groups on the condition it not identify the sponsors or those taking part.
The participants were asked if they believed the Justice Department was acting politically in probing Trump. The five women all raised their hands. Several of the men also expressed that sentiment.
"It's three months before midterms," one of the women said.
Another woman said: "Maybe there's money involved. I don't believe that anyone's not getting paid for the things that they're doing — you know, leaking things to media. I think there's just a lot of really shady stuff going on."
And one man said: "I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, Here's another thing that's politically motivated."
The Post noted that Trump has claimed he was targeted for political reasons. Trump also has condemned the raid as politically motivated and a "weaponization" of the Justice Department, according to AFP.
"Nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States before," Trump said.
Among Republicans, 76.7% say "Trump's political enemies" were behind the raid, according to a poll released Thursday by the Convention of States Action and The Trafalgar Group.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has criticized "unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors."
The Post reported that some of the women in the focus groups also questioned why former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasn't charged for running a private email server while in office.
Some of those in the focus groups were skeptical of both Republican and Democrats, but wanted the Trump investigation to continue.
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