A CNN poll released Wednesday said that a majority of Americans, including the lion’s share of Democrats, do not believe the report by special counsel Robert Mueller exonerated President Trump and his campaign of colluding with Russia in the 2016 election.
According to a four-page letter on the report by Attorney General William Barr, “the special counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”
But a majority of the public does not believe that constitutes an exoneration.
In the poll, 56 percent agreed with the formulation “the President and his campaign have NOT been exonerated, but collusion could not be proven.” By comparison, just 43 percent said “the President and his campaign have been exonerated of any collusion with Russia.”
The numbers were largely driven by partisan splits — with 77 percent of Republicans saying Mr. Trump was exonerated and 80 percent of Democrats saying he was not. Among political independents, 58 percent say he was not.
There also was a knowledge gap. Among the 23 percent who claimed to have read or heard “a great deal” about the report, 56 percent called it an exoneration while 44 percent did not.
On another one of the possible charges in the Mueller probe — that Mr. Trump’s actions toward the investigators might constitute obstruction of justice — Mr. Barr and Mr. Mueller took a formulation closer to “not exonerated but not provable” tack with which the majority in the poll agreed.
The poll of 701 adults, which was conducted by SSRS on Monday and Tuesday, has an error margin of 5.4 percentage points.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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