A wide majority of Americans surveyed in a new CBS News poll say that special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE should be allowed to do his job without interference, and more than half say they want Congress to pass a law to protect his investigation.

Seven in ten respondents told CBS News in the poll released Tuesday that President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE should not take action to hinder Mueller's investigation, a number which includes 76 percent of independents and 57 percent of Republicans.

ADVERTISEMENT

When it comes to legislation designed to protect the special counsel probe from being shut down by the White House, 52 percent of those surveyed, including 53 percent of independents, say that they support Congress passing a law. Just 23 percent of Republicans surveyed supported such a bill, compared to 75 percent of Democrats.

A bill to protect Mueller is currently being debated in the Senate, where Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeHow fast population growth made Arizona a swing state Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Republican former Michigan governor says he's voting for Biden MORE (R) has pledged to hold up the president's judicial nominees until the bill gets a vote.

A majority of respondents do believe, however, that Mueller's investigation is politically motivated, something Trump has often claimed. 51 percent of those polled told CBS that they thought the investigation was politically motivated, compared to 46 percent who say it is justified.

Tuesday's poll comes following a previous poll from CNN on Americans' views of the special counsel investigation in September, which at the time found that respondents, by a significant margin, approved of Mueller's handling of the probe more than Trump's response to the investigation.

At the time, just 30 percent of those polled approved of the president's conduct related to the Mueller probe, while fifty percent of respondents approved of Mueller's work.

Mueller is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

The special counsel has charged four Americans once affiliated with the Trump campaign and more than a dozen Russians in the probe.

The CBS News poll contacted 1,103 adults nationally and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.