A new poll shows a majority of American voters, 53 percent, believe President Trump has attempted to “derail or obstruct” Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
The poll released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University shows 50 percent of American voters say Mueller’s investigation is legitimate, while 42 percent said it was a “political witch hunt.” A majority of voters, 56 to 28 percent believe the probe to be “fair” in a separate question.
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller is not out to get President Donald Trump, American voters say, but they do feel the president is out to get Mueller,” said Assistant Director of the Quinnipiac University Poll Tim Malloy.
When it comes to Congress, voters were more divided.
Forty-four percent of voters said Republicans in Congress were trying to derail or obstruct the Mueller investigation while 44 percent of voters said there was no obstruction.
Independent voters overall thought the Mueller investigation to be legitimate and that Trump and Republicans in Congress have tried to interfere with the investigation.
Fifty-six percent of independents said Trump is attempting to derail the Russia investigation; 49 percent said Republicans in Congress were trying to interfere with the investigation; and 54 percent said the investigation was legitimate as opposed to a witch hunt.
Trust in the FBI remained high among voters. A majority of voters, 55 to 33 percent, said the FBI was not biased against Trump.
“Despite the beating they’ve taken from the White House, the judiciary and the intelligence communities are considered a lot more trustworthy than the Oval Office and the Fourth Estate,” Malloy said.
The poll comes in the middle of a contentious battle in Washington over the release of memos by the congressional intelligence committees. Last Friday, Trump signed the release of the House Intelligence Committee memo accusing the FBI of abusing surveillance authority. Trump claimed the memo “totally vindicated” him in Russia investigation.
Democrats are now trying to release another memo in rebuttal to the GOP memo released Friday. In response, some have speculated that Republicans in Congress may come up with a “Republican rebuttal to the rebuttal” in yet another memo.
The poll was conducted from Feb. 2 – 5 and surveyed 1,333 voters nationwide with a +/- 3.3 percent margin of error.
