Trump, Russia Investigation: Latest Poll Shows Americans Think President Interfered With Probe

Something's up with the Russia investigation—at least, that's what you'll hear if you ask many Americans about President Donald Trump's ties to the country that the U.S. intelligence community says worked to influence the 2016 election.

A majority of respondents in a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday are suspicious of Trump's handling of the Russia probe and think he has tried to put up roadblocks to slow the investigation. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they felt Trump was trying to interfere with the Russia investigation, while 34 percent felt the president was cooperating, the survey found.

Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults, meanwhile, said he fired former FBI Director James Comey to protect himself, while just 27 percent felt he did it for the good of the country. Americans also say they believe Comey—who is set to testify Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee—more than Trump. Just 36 percent of U.S. adults said they feel they can place "a great deal" or "a good amount" of trust in what Comey "says about possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election." That's not stellar, but it's better than only 21 percent for the president.

Comey is expected to deliver testimony Thursday that details how the president asked him to end an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his interactions with Russian officials. ABC News reports that Comey will stop short of suggesting the president obstructed justice. It's likely senators will push him on whether the president interfered with the investigation into Russia's meddling in the election, Reuters reported Wednesday.

"I want to know what kind of pressure—appropriate, inappropriate—how many conversations he had with the president about this topic," Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS over the weekend.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported Wednesday that in a private meeting with Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Trump apparently urged Coats to intervene with Comey regarding the bureau's investigation of Flynn.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll interviewed 527 U.S. adults by phone from June 2 through June 4. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.