The survey, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research for Rasmussen on May 29 and 30 asked, "If Hillary Clinton is charged with a felony in connection with the e-mail investigation, should she immediately stop campaigning or should she continue running until a court determines her guilt or innocence?" Of those surveyed, 43% suggest the former first lady should end her campaign immediately if charged, with 50% saying she should continue until a court decision is made on the matter.
Clinton’s email troubles began a year ago, after it was revealed that classified material had passed through a private email server at the Clinton home in Chappaqua, New York. The server was used by former President Bill Clinton for personal communication and to conduct Clinton Foundation business. There have been questions about the nature of Clinton’s emails and whether any sensitive information was compromised.
A 44-year-old Romanian hacker named Marcel Lehel Lazar, known online as Guccifer, claimed that he gained access to the Clinton’s email server but found nothing interesting, saying, "It was not what I was looking for, it was boring stuff." Representatives for the Clinton campaign have denied Lazar’s claims.
Just 8% of those polled say they are more likely to vote for the former Secretary of State because of the scandal. Of voters surveyed, some 40% say they are less likely to vote for Clinton due to the issue, and 48% say the emails will have no bearing on their decision to vote for her.
Of independent voters, 46% who participated said they believe Clinton should keep running, with 30% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats feeling the same way.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), a watchdog group for the State Department, released a report last week criticizing Clinton’s digital conduct, and claiming a breach in federal regulations, saying, "Secretary Clinton should have preserved any Federal records she created and received on her personal account by printing and filing those records with the related files in the Office of the Secretary," before adding, "At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act."
The OIG’s report also placed some of the blame on the State Department’s failure to update its systems and procedures in handling classified documents, stating, "Longstanding, systemic weaknesses related to electronic records and communications have existed within the Office of the Secretary that go well beyond the tenure of any one Secretary of State. OIG recognizes that technology and Department policy have evolved considerably since Secretary Albright’s tenure began in 1997. Nevertheless, the Department generally and the Office of the Secretary in particular have been slow to recognize and to manage effectively the legal requirements and cybersecurity risks associated with electronic data communications, particularly as those risks pertain to its most senior leadership."
