According to a new CBS poll released Wednesday, a majority of Americans say Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia is political motivated, rather than “justified.”
When asked whether the Russia investigation is “politically motivated” or “justified,” 53 percent of Americans said it is “politically motivated.” Only 44 percent said the investigation is “justified.”
This represented a jump from December 2017. At that time, 48 percent of Americans said the investigation was “politically motivated,” while 46 percent said it was “justified,” CBS News reported.
Even so, three in four Americans said Trump should cooperate if he is asked to be interviewed as part of the Mueller investigation. This represented a drop from January, however, when 84 percent said he should cooperate.
While there is evidence that Russian actors attempted to intervene in the 2016 presidential election, and that is a noxious crime, there is no proof that Trump himself “colluded” with Russia to win the election. Trump’s campaign did hire questionable characters like Paul Manafort, but that does not prove collusion with Russia.
Many recent scandals have shown an anti-Trump bias from within the FBI during the 2016 election, and suggested that the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Service Act (FISA) to snoop on the Trump campaign. Russia scandals have arguably always been worse for Hillary Clinton, and Mueller headed the FBI when the bureau acted quickly to arrest Russian spies as they penetrated Clinton’s inner circle.
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