Poll: Most want criminal probe of Clinton emails

More than half of registered voters say a criminal investigation should be launched into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system while serving as secretary of State, according to a new poll.

The Monmouth University survey, released Wednesday, was conducted before Tuesday evening’s revelation that Clinton had turned over to the government her personal email server and USB thumb drives containing copies of the emails, following news that at least two emails had been classified as “top secret.”

{mosads}According to the poll, 52 percent of voters say that Clinton’s emails “should be subject to a criminal investigation for potential release of classified material.”

Republicans overwhelmingly supported a criminal probe, and Democrats were largely against it. Fifty-four percent of independents said that they supported the investigation, a sign of political vulnerabilities Clinton faces in the Democratic presidential nominating contest.

Despite the desire for a criminal inquiry, the poll indicated that 51 percent of voters believed Clinton’s use of an in-home email system was a matter of convenience, compared with 38 percent who thought she may have been trying to hide something.

Republicans are paying closest attention to the story, the poll found, though a majority of Democrats and independents also said they had heard a lot about the controversy.

On Tuesday, troubles mounted for Clinton after a pair of inspectors general concluded that two emails that were contained within Clinton’s files should have been classified as “top secret.” After that news broke, Clinton’s presidential campaign announced that it was handing over to the Justice Department both the server on which her email system was housed and USB drives containing copies of her emails, which had been in the possession of her lawyer.

The action led to criticism from Republicans, who have long pressed for the Democratic front-runner to hand her machine over to the government.

Monmouth polled 1,033 registered voters by telephone from July 30 to Aug. 2. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.