Half of Americans say Mueller will implicate Trump in wrongdoing: poll

Half of Americans believe special counsel Robert Mueller will personally implicate President Trump in wrongdoing, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.

Respondents’ answers were notably divided along partisan lines, but of the Republicans surveyed 23 percent said they thought the special counsel would personally implicate Trump and 47 percent of independents said the same. Among Democrats surveyed, 78 percent believe that Trump will ultimately be implicated in the special counsel’s report.

{mosads}Most of those surveyed, 59 percent, also consider the investigation a serious matter, with about 35 percent saying Mueller’s probe is an attempt to discredit the president.

The poll comes days after court filings from Mueller revealed new details in his cases against former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Friday’s filings alleged that Trump personally directed Cohen to make payments to silence two women regarding affairs they say they had with Trump prior to his running for president.

Those payments were determined earlier this year to have constituted campaign finance violations. It was also alleged that Manafort lied to prosecutors about his contacts with the White House in violation of his plea agreement.

Trump said that the filings “totally [clear] the President” and responded with a string of tweets in the following days ripping Mueller and the investigation.

Totally clears the President. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2018

The CNN poll shows that Trump’s approval rating for handling the Russia investigation has dropped to 29 percent, matching a low previously hit in June, and that 54 percent of Americans believe that most of the things Trump has said publicly about the Russia probe are false. 

Trump’s overall approval rating as president sits at 39 percent.

CNN surveyed 1,015 adults from Dec. 6 to 9, around the release of the court filings. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.