News Analysis: Hillary Clinton could benefit as voters show less interest in her scandals

With scandals piling up on U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Americans are taking less and less interest in them so that her perceived dishonesty may have little impact on her lead in the campaign.

Clinton's laundry list of scandals is getting longer and longer as she moves closer to Election Day in November. The latest scandal involves allegations that her private charity foundation, the Clinton Foundation, gave high-rolling donors special access to her while she was secretary of state.

The email scandal is also ongoing, in which the former secretary of state used a private email account and private server to conduct official business. Critics accused Clinton of jeopardizing U.S. national security by not using a government-issued and secure email account.

The news website WikiLeaks has also released information showing an allegedly cozy relationship between a nationally known CNN correspondent and the Democratic National Committee, in the form of an email regarding handing the reporter questions to ask on air.

Nevertheless, experts said Clinton is expected to continue her lead in the presidential race against her Republican rival Donald Trump, whose bombastic rhetoric has led to his decline in the polls.

"Barring some major new disclosures, she is likely to remain in the lead. Voters are desensitized to Clinton scandals because there have been so many over the years," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.

Clinton "can claim that the opposition is out to get her and will turn any minor indiscretion into a major problem. This helps her weather various controversies even when they consume a lot of media attention," West said.

It's also possible that WikiLeaks will release more information on Clinton, but experts said that possibility is already baked into the public's expectations, so additional leaks on Clinton's secrets are unlikely to seriously harm her in the polls.

Most observers assume there will be additional WikiLeaks disclosures that would be embarrassing to Clinton, West said.

But, as much of this information appears to come from Russian hackers, U.S. voters may discount the leaks on the basis that Russia is interfering in American elections and seeking to help its favored candidate, Donald Trump, West said.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that the Wikileaks documents may provide some interesting scandal fodder in the lead up to the elections.

But among moderate voters, Clinton's email scandal can only get so much traction, as it is often overshadowed by concerns about Trump, he said.

Additionally, many Americans are skeptical of WikiLeaks' intentions, as some consider WikiLeaks to be an organization with either a fundamentally anti-American outlook or one with either formal or informal ties to intelligence agencies in Russia, Mahaffee said. Enditem