More than 70 percent...

Poll: Most people don't trust Trump on Russia investigations

By LOUIS NELSON

President Donald Trump has a credibility problem when it comes to the ongoing investigations into Russian interference in last year’s election, a new poll released Wednesday morning shows.

More than 70 percent of those reached by The Washington Post/ABC News poll said they have either some or no trust in what the president says about the array of probes into the Russian government’s election interference. Fifty percent of respondents said they had no trust at all in the president’s statements on the issue.

Trump has regularly derided the investigations, including one overseen by special prosecutor Robert Mueller and two that are being conducted by the House and Senate intelligence committees, as a “witch hunt.” He for months refused to acknowledge the intelligence community’s assessment that the Russian government was to blame for the wave of cyberattacks targeting last year’s election, instead suggesting that it might have been China or a lone-wolf hacker acting on his or her own.

On the question of Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, who was at the time overseeing the bureau’s Russia investigation, 61 percent said they believed the president had done so in order to protect himself while just 27 percent said the dismissal had been for the good of the nation. Fifty-six percent of those polled said Trump has sought to interfere with the Russia investigations, while 34 percent said he has cooperated with them.

Comey is likely to offer further clarity on Trump’s cooperation or lack thereof on Thursday when he testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he is likely to be asked about reports that the president asked him to halt the bureau’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The former FBI director is reported to have kept extemporaneous notes on his meetings with the president, excerpts of which have been reported on by multiple media outlets.

But Comey’s credibility is also not ironclad with those polled. Fifty-five percent said they have either some or no trust in what the former FBI director says about the Russia investigations, while just 36 percent said they have either a great deal or a good amount of trust in Comey’s statements on the issue.

The Washington Post/ABC News poll was conducted from June 2-4 via landlines and cell phones, surveying 527 adults nationwide in English and Spanish. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 5 percentage points.