Almost half of US voters say Trump will be cleared in Russia probe – poll

A new poll reveals 48 percent of American voters believe it’s “very or somewhat likely” President Donald Trump will be cleared in the investigation into alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday also shows 37 percent believe “it’s not too likely or not at all likely” Trump will have his name cleared in the investigation. The poll of 1,988 registered voters was conducted on January 4 and 5 and had a margin of error of two percentage points.

Kyle Dropp, chief research officer and co-founder of Morning Consult, commented further on specific information in the poll.

“Democrats and Republicans have drastically different views on whether Trump will be cleared of wrongdoing in the Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller,” he said, according to Politico. “Three in four Republicans, 74 percent, say it’s likely Trump will be cleared of wrongdoing in the Russia probe this year. But only 32 percent of Democrats say the same.”

The president himself is one of the Americans who anticipates the Russia probe will exonerate him, although it’s unlikely he participated in the poll himself.

Trump was recently questioned about whether he asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself on matters related to Russia earlier this year. The president replied saying “everything that I’ve done is 100 percent proper. That’s what I do is I do things proper,” according to the White House.

“And you know, I guess the collusion now is dead because everyone found that, after a year of study, there’s been absolutely no collusion,” Trump said.

The president further stated: “There has been no collusion between us and the Russians.”

The Politico/Morning Consult poll comes on the heels of a reported push by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team to interview Trump, according to NBC News.

Talks regarding the potential interview reportedly started after Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was served with an indictment last October on charges of money laundering and filing false foreign lobbying reports, along with other counts, CNN reports.

Richard Gates, Manafort’s business associate, was also indicted, along with former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty separately to lying to the FBI.

Mueller has already interviewed current and former White House staffers, such as communications director Hope Hicks, former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former press secretary Sean Spicer.

[contfnewc]