Poll: Americans doubt Democrats, fairness of Mueller investigation

Americans tend to think that Democratic legislators in the House of Representatives will go too far in investigating President Donald Trump, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

While 46 percent said they think the Democrats will go too far, only 34 percent thought the lawmakers will handle the investigation “about right,” according to the Jan. 21-24 survey. Seventeen percent thought Democrats won’t go far enough.

Democrats, who won the House majority in the November midterm elections, have vowed to use the chamber’s oversight powers to probe the president on multiple fronts.

Americans’ view of the probe is all the more striking because it comes from a pollster that has consistently reported results less favorable to Trump than most other major polls.

Mueller’s Report ‘Fair’?

Respondents also tended to be skeptical about the fairness of the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. While 43 percent were confident by a “great deal” or “good amount” that Mueller’s final report “will be fair and even-handed,” 50 percent had “just some” confidence or none at all.

Mueller was tasked in 2017 with probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and also allegations of collusion with the Trump campaign. Later that year, Mueller’s mandate was broadened to include related matters, such as the past financial dealings of Paul Manafort, who led the Trump campaign for several months.

Mueller has indicted dozens of Russians for interference and several people linked to the Trump campaign for process crimes, such as lying to investigators, or other crimes that are unrelated to election interference. None of the charges are related to the collusion allegations for which it was intended to discover. After two years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, no person connected to President Trump, his campaign, business or the White House has been indicted for collusion.

The special counsel probe was a continuation of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation that was based in part on information contained in the so-called Steele dossier, which was paid for by the Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The poll, conducted by telephone with a random national sample of 1,001 adults, has a 3.5 percentage point margin of error.