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A surprisingly large share of Democrats wants to see Hillary Clinton investigated over her possible role in manufacturing dirt to try to tie Donald Trump to the Kremlin, a new poll shows.
The survey, conducted by TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics in New Jersey last month, polled 1,308 Americans about the mushrooming investigation by Special Counsel John Durham into the FBI’s probe of Trump’s alleged links to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Nearly three out of four of those polled who are following the story said they think it’s important prosecutors investigate Clinton for her role in the Russiagate scandal along with her top campaign advisers.
That includes two-thirds — or 66 percent — of the Democrats polled who said they have been keeping up with the case.
That’s up 20 points from this past October, when TIPP asked the same question of a national panel, and indicates the Durham probe may be turning Democratic opinion regarding Clinton and the controversy.
Meanwhile, 91 percent of Republicans in the same group and 65 percent of Independents also called for Clinton to specifically be investigated.
Durham has already charged Clinton campaign subcontractor Igor Danchenko for allegedly lying about the sourcing behind the debunked so-called Steele dossier he helped compile, which attempted to frame Trump as a Kremlin agent.
Danchenko, a former Brookings Institution analyst, completely fabricated the source for the dossier’s most explosive allegations, according to the indictment. It turns out he also allegedly used a Clinton campaign adviser as another key source for other dirt he gathered. Danchenko was arrested in October and has pleaded not guilty.
Michael Sussmann, the former law partner of Clinton campaign general counsel Mark Elias, was indicted in September for allegedly lying about his work for the Clinton campaign on a scheme linking Trump to a Russian bank. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty.
As part of the probe involving Sussmann, Durham said in a legal filing Friday that he discovered Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign paid a Web firm to “infiltrate’’ servers at Trump Towers and the White House to try to tie Trump to Russia.
Meanwhile, the new poll found that Americans want greater scrutiny of the Biden family, too.
More than two-thirds, or 68 percent, of respondents said they think it’s important that the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and brother Jimmy Biden are walled off from any business involving the administration. That includes communicating with the president and his aides about policy proposals or taking any government jobs or contracts, the majority told pollsters.
An equal share of Democrats and Republicans — 71 percent — agreed that the president’s relatives should be kept at arm’s length, the poll found.
Last year, Hunter revealed that he is under federal investigation for possible tax fraud. He has insisted he’s handled his “affairs legally and appropriately” and has no plans to strike a plea deal.
It was recently revealed that Delaware’s US Attorney, David Weiss, a Trump appointee, has issued subpoenas for bank records involving Hunter, his uncle Jimmy, and former business partners Devon Archer and Eric Schwerin.
The same poll found that 46 percent of Americans think the mainstream media have done a fair to poor job covering Biden and his family’s alleged influence-peddling and other corruption.
A majority of Republicans, 69 percent, and Independents, 54 percent, give the media poor grades. In contrast, 53 percent of Democrats think the media are doing a good job covering allegations of Biden graft.
Among other key findings: 76 percent of Americans want Attorney General Merrick Garland’s counsel Maggie Goodlander to recuse herself from the Durham probe because of a potential personal conflict posed by her husband, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is cited in the Sussmann indictment.
Eight-two percent of Republicans and 79 percent of Democrats agree.
“They understand that she can’t be involved in matters related to the probe since her husband played an active role in Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” said Raghavan Mayur of TIPP.
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