Most voters think former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton likely broke the law by transmitting classified data over her private email system during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat, according to a new Rasmussen poll.
Fifty-nine percent of likely voters said they believe Clinton probably broke the law by using her private home-based server to send and receive emails containing classified information. This includes 42 percent who said the Democratic presidential front-runner very likely broke the law.
As for her fellow Democrats, 37 percent said they think it's likely that she broke the law, and 16 percent said it's very likely.
Just 34 percent over all voters said they think it's unlikely Clinton did anything illegal, including 15 percent who said they think it's very unlikely.
Most respondents, 51 percent, also think Clinton has done a poor job of handling questions related to her email use, while 28 percent think she has done a good or excellent job.
Initially, Clinton repeatedly insisted that she had never sent or received classified information on her private system, but after investigators revealed that she did indeed transmit top-secret data, she began walking back those claims, instead saying that she never sent or received information marked as classified. She has maintained her innocence throughout the scandal and, on a few occasions, attempted to make light of the situation by cracking what some say were tasteless jokes. After months of unabashed behavior, Clinton finally admitted her mistake and apologized earlier this month, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The FBI has reportedly assigned its "A-team" to investigate a possible violation of the Espionage Act, and on Tuesday, the Senate's No. 2 Republican leader asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to assign a special counsel to investigate Clinton, as lawmakers fear that the Department of Justice may not fairly prosecute a former colleague.
The scandal has wreaked havoc on her favorability ratings and likely contributed to the rise of her closest Democratic presidential challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has overtaken Clinton in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and come within 10 percent in a recent national poll.
Most voters now view Clinton as untrustworthy, and the word most people first associate with her is "liar," according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.
Earlier this week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found Clinton's appeal among women voters has also eroded drastically. In July, 71 percent of Democratic-leaning female voters said they would probably vote for Clinton, but now, only 42 percent say the same, a 29-percentage-point drop in just eight weeks.
The Rasmussen survey was conducted Sept. 10-13 among 1,000 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
