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Bureau Fare
May 23, 2023 1497 replies
FBI_Fingerprint_experts-16x9.jpg
FBI fingerprint experts in undated photo. Source Wikimedia
Q1. John Durham is a lawyer who served as the US Attorney for Connecticut from 2017 to 2021. In 2019, Bill Barr, Attorney General in the Trump Administration, assigned Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Durham released his final report last week. Among his findings was that the FBI was more skeptical of foreign influence allegations against the Clinton campaign than the Trump campaign. Do you believe this to have been true of the FBI?
male
female
rep
ind
dem
18-29
30-44
45-64
65+

Yes, but it was justified

28%
27%
30%
19%
28%
36%
36%
28%
23%
31%

Yes, not justified

35%
41%
31%
57%
34%
17%
28%
33%
41%
34%

No

17%
13%
22%
10%
14%
23%
1%
16%
21%
25%

Don't know

18%
17%
18%
12%
20%
22%
31%
19%
15%
9%

Don't care

1%
3%
0%
0%
3%
2%
3%
3%
0%
Q2. Durham's report said the FBI was too quick to pursue a vague tip about potential contacts between a Trump campaign aide and Russian authorities in July 2016, because the bureau had no other information in its files to corroborate any such contact. The Justice Department’s inspector general in 2019 found similar flaws in the FBI inquiry, but found the investigation was justified.

Was the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign aide's ties to Russia justified?
male
female
rep
ind
dem
18-29
30-44
45-64
65+

Yes

52%
40%
63%
8%
51%
90%
52%
59%
48%
53%

No

42%
54%
31%
86%
42%
5%
39%
36%
47%
44%

Don't know

5%
5%
5%
5%
6%
4%
7%
5%
6%
3%

Don't care

1%
1%
0%
0%
1%
1%
3%
0%
0%
Q3. In the course of his investigation, Durham filed charges against three people. Two affiliates of the Clinton campaign were charged with providing misleading information to the FBI to encourage an investigation into Donald Trump. Both were found not guilty.

The third, an assistant counsel at the FBI, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to making a false statement and was sentenced to a year of probation. FBI agents had asked Clinesmith to find out if Trump campaign advisor Carter Page had ever been a source to the CIA. A CIA official told Clinesmith in an email that Page “was or is” an operational contact. Clinesmith forwarded that email to an FBI agent and added the phrase “and not a ‘source' ” to the email, making it look like that language had come from the CIA.

Do you trust the FBI, and do these outcomes change your faith in the bureau?
male
female
rep
ind
dem
18-29
30-44
45-64
65+
Group A

Trust FBI

37%
32%
43%
8%
32%
63%
24%
37%
41%
43%

Don't trust

57%
64%
50%
90%
64%
28%
67%
57%
56%
53%
Group B

Outcomes increase my faith in FBI

12%
10%
15%
2%
10%
21%
4%
14%
13%
15%

Decrease my faith

50%
56%
43%
84%
47%
21%
54%
45%
52%
47%

No change

33%
28%
36%
11%
38%
50%
33%
35%
30%
34%

Don't know

4%
2%
6%
1%
3%
6%
0%
8%
4%
3%

Don't care

2%
2%
2%
2%
1%
2%
9%
0%
1%
0%

Opinion of the FBI through the years:

April 2015 was the most trusted branch of law enforcement from among police, homeland security, state troopers, sherriffs, ATF, DEA

August 2015 was most trusted to to use cell phone trackers from among police, CIA, Other law enforcement

Feb 2016 was profession given most leeway to use deceit from among police detectives, CIA agents, police officers, private detectives, journalists

October 2016 39% approve, 45% disapprove

August 2018 57% believed FBI, 36% believed Pres Trump  when FBI said they had found no evidence that Clinton email server was compromised and Trump had said China hacked it

 

Entities in this poll: (click to rate or comment on)
Russia Donald Trump FBI US Justice Dept CIA Connecticut William Barr
16 Comments on the Poll