Nearly two in three (62 percent) believed the FBI was biased in probing Clinton’s mishandling of classified information while using an unauthorized private email server while serving as State Secretary. Of those respondents, some 61 percent believed the FBI was biased in her favor, while 39 percent believed the bias was against her.
Similarly, 59 percent believed the investigators were biased in probing the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, of whom some 64 percent thought the bias was against him.
Both investigations coincided with the Trump-Clinton face-off in the 2016 presidential election and both have been scrutinized by the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) and Congress.
“The damage caused by their actions extends far beyond the scope of the [Clinton] investigation and goes to the heart of the FBI’s reputation for neutral factfinding and political independence,” the June 14 report stated.
However, the IG couldn’t connect the bias with specific decisions made in the Clinton investigation. A separate report on the Trump investigation is expected later this year.
Meanwhile, congressional investigators have been complaining that the Justice Department is stonewalling their work by refusing to produce large enough quantities of the requested documents.