RUTHFULLY YOURS

Amid new revelations, spurious Russia collusion charges against President Trump have become both a major scandal and a grand jury investigation. Do voters want top spies in former President Obama’s administration investigated? Yes, the I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

The national online poll was conducted from July 30-Aug. 1, with 1,362 adults taking part. The poll’s margin of error is +/-2.7 percentage points. I&I/TIPP asked a total of five questions about what has been called “the dirtiest political trick in history,” and worse.

The first question asked: “Do you believe the Obama administration deliberately fabricated the Trump–Russia collusion narrative to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency?”

Among all who answered, 38% said “yes,” while 40% said “no,” a statistical toss-up given the margin of error. Meanwhile another 22% said “not sure,” which means they harbor some suspicions that the statement is true, just not enough yet to believe it.

The political affiliation breakdown is enlightening. Among Democrats, 16% answered yes, and an even-larger portion responded “not sure” to the question. So a third of all Democrats believe there’s at least something to the charges. That leaves only 65% of Dems answering no, they didn’t believe the Obama White House made the scandal.

Not a big vote of confidence from Obama’s own party.

Republicans, perhaps predictably, answered 66% yes, to 16% no, and 16% not sure, while independent voters were 27% yes, 40% no, but a sizable 33% not sure.

Among independents, just 27% said yes while 40% said no and a sizable 33% were not sure.\

That leads to the second question: “Should former President Barack Obama be criminally investigated for his alleged role in the origins of the Russia collusion narrative?”

Overall, 37% said yes, 46% said no, and, once again, a chunky 18% were “not sure.”

And again, political affiliation marked a predictable schism in the body politic. But once more “not sure” loomed large as a response, with Democrats (13%), Republicans (16%) and indie voters (23%) describing themselves as “not sure.”

When Democrats are subtracted out, a plurality of Republicans, independents and third-party members’ opinions split roughly 48% yes, 32% no on the question. Not really close. Most non-Democrats favor a criminal investigation of Obama’s role in the Russia scandal.

The third question shows a much clearer result: “Do you support or oppose the full declassification of all documents related to the origins of the Russia investigation?”

Among all those who took the poll, 63% said they would support declassification either “strongly” (42%) or “somewhat” (22%), while a minuscule 14% said they would oppose such a move either somewhat (9%) or strongly (5%). And, just as with the other questions, a major share – 23% – described themselves as “not sure.”

Following up on that question, I&I/TIPP asked: “Should there be a special counsel investigation into whether Obama-era officials misused intelligence powers for political purposes?” Yes, no, or not sure were the possible answers.

Appointing a special counsel found overall support of 45%, while 35% said no and 20% were not sure.

Republicans (67% yes, 19% no, 14% not sure) and independents (40% yes, 32% no, 28% not sure) mostly favored a special counsel. Democrats (26% yes, 57% no, 17% not sure) opposed the idea, although, as the data show, just over a quarter of Democrats backed it.

The Justice Department is already launching a grand jury investigation into a possible conspiracy by the Obama administration to use U.S. intelligence and other government assets in a bid to portray Trump as a kind of Russian-controlled dupe during his 2016 presidential run.

A special counsel’s powers are much broader and more powerful: He or she can both investigate and, if evidence is found of a crime, prosecute those who broke the law.

Finally, the I&I/TIPP Poll asked: “Have Tulsi Gabbard’s revelations changed your view of the original Russia investigation?”

As a reminder, documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in July suggested the Obama administration made up intelligence showing Trump benefitted from collusion with Russia during his 2016 campaign.

More than a quarter – 27% – selected “I have always believed it was fabricated,” as their best answer, while 15% said “I have always believed it was legitimate”; another 12% answered, “I didn’t have a strong opinion before, but I’m now more convinced it was fabricated”; only 5% agreed with “I didn’t have a strong opinion before, but I’m now more convinced it was legitimate”; and, finally, a significantly large 41% simply said “Not sure.”

So, all told, 39% agreed that the allegations against Trump were “fabricated,” while 20% believed they were “legitimate.”

But the political breakdown is interesting. Among Democrats, 29% say the charges against Trump were made up, while a slightly lower 26% said they were legit. And 45% weren’t sure.

Among Republicans, 58% said the charges were made up, but a surprisingly large 17% thought the charges legitimate, and 25% weren’t sure.

Independents’ views are roughly equal to the Democrats when it comes to whether the anti-Trump charges were fabricated: 28%. Meanwhile, those thinking they were legitimate totaled just 17%, while a majority, 55%, said they weren’t sure.

Wherever one currently stands on these Russiagate issues, it’s clear that a legal battle royale is shaping up over whether the Obama administration used its office and public money to pursue a vendetta against a political foe.

Our poll suggests a near-even split among Americans over whether Obama and his aides made up the collusion narrative to derail Trump; a slight preference by voters to not investigate Obama himself for his role in Russiagate; overwhelming majority support for declassification of all Russiagate documents; a plurality of support for investigating whether Obama administration officials misused U.S. intelligence for political ends; and, finally, a 2-1 plurality agreeing that Gabbard’s document dump on Russiagate had led them to believe the charges against Trump were made up.

Americans’ traditional respect for the office of the president certainly makes many, including a significant number of Republicans, hesitant to take action against a former president. That’s especially true given Obama’s status as the nation’s first African-American chief executive.

High-level officials in Obama’s administration are another matter. Former CIA Director John Brennan, FBI chief James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper could face serious criminal charges for conspiracy, along with former presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But the coming legal battle will be no less brutal, given the extreme political polarization at work in the courts and among the body politic. Even so, other polls also show Americans want to know the truth: A recent Rasmussen survey found 69% of Americans want the alleged conspirators to be investigated and held accountable, if guilty.

The trove of new information that’s emerged recently strongly indicates the charges that Russia aided Trump in his 2016 presidential run were likely not true, and, at worst, a criminal political conspiracy run from within the Obama administration to ruin an innocent man.

I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.

Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.