Poll: Majority say IG report revealed pattern of misjudgment by FBI

A majority of voters believe the report from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed a pattern of misjudgment and violations of procedures by the FBI, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill. 

Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said they believe the report, which was released last month, showed misjudgments and violations of procedures by the law enforcement agency, while 39 percent said it absolved the bureau.  

Horowitz’s report found that the FBI’s move to launch a probe into President Trump’s campaign associates was not motivated by political bias. 

However, the watchdog reported finding “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI’s application to the secretive court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which were part of efforts to monitor Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Other polls released exclusively to The Hill also delved into issues surrounding the 2020 presidential campaign and impeachment. 

One survey found that Trump’s support with minority males has increased since last year. Thirty-six percent of black and Hispanic men said they supported Trump, up from 28 percent earlier last year. 

Meanwhile, a poll on Hunter Biden showed 66 percent of voters say they have heard of the son of former Vice President Joe Biden and about his tenure as a board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. 

Fifty-nine percent of voters said they questioned Hunter Biden’s qualifications for the role, while 72 percent said they believed he got the role because of his father’s position.

Hunter Biden was ensnared in the impeachment drive after Trump and other Republicans accused Joe Biden of having pushed to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor to get him to back off Burisma. Former Vice President Biden has strongly denied that. 

The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey was conducted online within the U.S. among a representative sample of 2,010 registered voters between Dec. 27 and Dec. 29 by the Harris Poll.

Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

The sampling margin of error of the poll is 2 percentage points.