59% of likely voters suspect Hillary Clinton broke law

Most voters think Hillary Clinton needs to do a better job of explaining her use of a private e-mail server when she was secretary of State and they suspect that she broke the law. With so many outlets for news and information, it has gotten more difficult for the Clintons and their surrogates to vilify investigators and obstruct their investigations, as Rep. Trey Gowdy — the chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi — discovered for himself.  (See his videotaped interview below)

Two federal inspectors general have asked the U.S. Justice Department to open an investigation into how then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handled sensitive information on her private e-mail account. Most voters continue to have national security concerns about Clinton’s behavior but doubt that the federal government will do anything about it.

According to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey, 59% of likely voters think it’s likely Clinton broke the law by sending and receiving e-mails containing classified information through a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of State. Rasmussen Reports survey also found that just 34% believe Clinton is unlikely to have done anything illegal. This includes 42% who say it is Very Likely Clinton broke the law and only 15% who think it’s Not At All Likely.

Even among her fellow Democrats, 37% think it’s likely Clinton broke the law while using the private e-mail server at the State Department, with 16% who say it’s Very Likely. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean Clinton won’t get their votes. Her husband was known to be a dishonest and untrustworthy President, but that never stopped him from being hailed as a great President.

Only 28% of all voters believe Clinton has done a good or excellent job handling questions about her use of the private e-mail server as secretary of State. Fifty-one percent (51%) rate her handling of these questions as poor.

In late July, 54% said Clinton’s use of a private, non-government provider for her e-mail while serving as secretary of State raises serious national security concerns. Forty-six percent (46%) of all voters – and 24% of Democrats – think Clinton should suspend her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination until all of the legal questions about her use of the private e-mail server are resolved.

Forty-five percent (45%) of all voters – but only 18% of Democrats – consider the national security questions raised about Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of State to be a serious scandal.  Twenty-eight percent (28%) of likely voters consider the matter an embarrassing situation, while nearly as many (23%) say it’s no big deal.

Eighty-two percent (82%) of GOP voters and 63% of unaffiliated voters believe Clinton is likely to have broken the law.  Men and those 40 and over are more likely to think Clinton broke the law than women and younger voters are.