President Obama defended Hillary Clinton’s “integrity” as she faces a renewed FBI investigation of emails sent from her private server.
In a NowThis News interview released Wednesday, the president ducked a question about whether he was upset that FBI Director James Comey had announced the new twist in the long-running probe so close to Election Day. However, he did say the FBI should not operate on innuendo.
“I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations, we don’t operate on innuendo, and we don’t operate on incomplete information, and we don’t operate on leaks,” he said. “We operate based on concrete decisions that are made.”
Obama pointed to Comey’s conclusion in July, following months of investigation into whether Clinton or her aides mishandled classified information, that he would not recommend bringing charges. But in a cryptic letter to Congress last Friday, Comey said new emails, reportedly found on a computer used by her aide Huma Abedin, would be investigated.
“When this was investigated thoroughly last time, the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the Justice Department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations was she had made some mistakes but that there wasn’t anything there that was prosecutable,” Obama said.
The president also touted the character of his former Cabinet secretary. He said he “wouldn’t be supporting her if I didn’t have absolute confidence in her integrity.”
“I’ve made a very deliberate effort to make sure that I don’t look like I’m meddling in what are supposed to be independent processes for making these assessments,” he said when asked about the timing of Comey’s Friday announcement. “Setting aside the particulars of this case, I know that she is somebody who has always looked out for the interests of America and the American people first.”
Elected officials and legal experts from both parties have criticized Comey for his letter to Congress, arguing that it risked influencing the Nov. 8 election. Obama’s top spokesman, Josh Earnest, said Monday that the White House would “neither defend nor criticize” Comey’s announcement.
Watch the NowThis News interview below:
No comments:
Post a Comment