Forty-eight percent of likely voters in a nationwide survey told Rasmussen Reports they believe senior officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI broke the law while trying to keep Donald Trump from winning the Oval Office in the 2016 presidential election.

The survey found 48 percent agreed that “senior federal law enforcement officials broke the law in an effort to prevent Trump from winning last year’s election,” according to Rasmussen. “Forty-one percent disagree. This includes 31 percent who say it’s very likely these senior officials broke the law and 23 percent who say it’s not at all likely.”

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Only 11 percent were undecided in the survey, which questioned 1,000 likely voters from across the country.

The survey, conducted December 14-17, has a 3 percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence value.

The Rasmussen numbers suggest the chief executive has been effective in getting across his message of extreme bias against him in the investigation of allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and elements of the Russian government.

The Rasmussen numbers suggest Trump has been effective in getting across his message of extreme bias against him.

There is a wide gulf between Democrats and Republicans in the survey, with 66 percent of the latter agreeing top officials in the government broke the law while only 31 percent of Democrats said so.

Support for the idea that officials acted illegally against Trump is surprisingly strong among independents, with 50 percent of them agreeing.

Senior editor Mark Tapscott can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.

(photo credit, homepage image: Trump Saunters on the Stage, CC BY 2.0, by Jamelle Bouie; photo credit, article image: Donald Trump, CC BY 2.0, by Jamelle Bouie)