Fewer voters now trust the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and many believe the agency is acting as President Joe Biden’s “personal Gestapo” – a reference to Adolf Hitler’s secret German police – new data from Rasmussen Reports has revealed.

In the stunning poll, forty-six percent of Likely U.S. voters said they have a favorable impression of the FBI, with just 15 percent claiming to have a Very Favorable view of the agency. That’s down from May 2020, when 60 percent had a favorable impression of the FBI.

Forty-seven percent now view the FBI unfavorably, with 26 percent admitting to a Very Unfavorable impression.

In recent months, FBI leadership has even been called “a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI … as Joe Biden‘s personal Gestapo.” Forty-six percent (46%) of voters agree with this assessment, including 29 percent who Strongly Agree.

The news comes following FBI raids on journalists for reporting on the diary of Biden’s daughter Ashley, which includes the claim that the President of the United States inappropriately showered with his young daughter.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also been at the forefront of the Governor Whitmer kidnapping case, which appears now to have been the work of FBI insiders rather than independent political extremists.

The FBI is also believed to have a played a role in the January 6th riot, with FBI informants and even what Newsweek called a group of “shadowy commandos” based at Quantico (the FBI academy) playing a secret role in the day’s events. More information is expected on that subject in the coming weeks.

Just thirty-eight percent of Americans disagreed with the claim that the FBI was acting as Biden’s personal Gestapo, including 25 percent saying they Strongly Disagree.

Approval of FBI director Christopher Wray also declined, and fewer voters now view the FBI director as independent of the administration.

Just 10 percent of voters now say Wray is better than most who held the job before him – down from 13 percent in May 2020 – while 25 percent actually believe Wray is worse than most previous FBI directors, up from 17 percent in 2020.

Thirty-seven percent think Wray’s performance as FBI director has been about the same as most of his predecessors, with the rest “unsure”.

The news will rankle FBI leadership, and comes as Joe Biden’s own approval ratings slump even further.