Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager maintained Sunday that the Democratic nominee has not spoken to her longtime aide, Huma Abedin, about the FBI’s announcement this week it found additional emails possibly linked to Clinton’s homebrew server.
FBI Director James Comey informed Democratic and Republican lawmakers Friday that a separate investigation of Abedin’s estranged husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, turned up additional emails possibly related to the bureau’s earlier investigation of the private server Clinton maintained when she worked at the State Department.
On Sunday, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook claimed in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace that the Democratic nominee and Abedin haven’t discussed the matter.
Wallace asked, “There is someone who knows what’s in all those emails, and that is Huma Abedin. Has Secretary Clinton asked her what’s in those emails?”
Mook responded, “Well, Chris, the problem with what you’re just saying there is we don’t know. We don’t know where these emails are from. You’re making an inference that it could have been Huma Abedin. Your guess is as good as anyone.”
The additional emails were found as the FBI investigated Weiner for allegedly sexting a minor.
Weiner shared the laptop with his estranged wife and Clinton’s longtime aide, Huma Abedin.
The laptop may contain as many as 1,000 emails, which FBI agents are checking now to see if they’re related to official government work, if they’re are classified, or if they’re simply duplicates of emails authorities already processed, the Washington Post reported.
Wallace persisted Sunday, “I’m asking you a direct question. Has Secretary Clinton asked Huma Abedin what was on that laptop that she shared with her husband, Anthony Weiner?”
“She hasn’t,” Mook said. “Because you just offered a hypothetical on the table, let me offer you some hypotheticals that I’ve read in the press. I’ve heard a hypothetical that these emails had nothing to do with Hillary Clinton whatsoever, that she didn’t send or receive any of those.”
The Fox News host kept pressing Mook.
“Why wouldn’t she ask Huma Abedin, did you have emails on the laptop and what’s in them? And why wouldn’t she ask her?” Wallace asked.
Mook declined to give a specific answer, and focused instead on criticizing Comey for sending a “vague” letter to Congress.
“Why on Earth wouldn’t Hillary Clinton say to her closest personal aide, was there any stuff on your laptop, and what was it?” Wallace asked.
“Chris, again, I appreciate your question because people want answers. There’s nothing about Huma Abedin in the letter that was sent out,” Mook responded.
“I know that, but why wouldn’t Clinton ask her?” the host asked.
“Well, why wouldn’t Clinton ask anybody? They could be emails from anybody in the world,” Mook said.
“There are no reports that it’s anybody else except Huma Abedin,” Wallace noted.
“Again, you’re putting out some hypotheticals,” Clinton’s campaign manager argued. “There are other hypotheticals that have been put out there.”
“It’s on the front page of every paper in America,” Wallace said.
“Again, I appreciate what you’re asking because everybody wants to have the answer, and there’s a person who can answer this question, and that’s Director Comey,” Mook said. “He should put out more information, get everything on the table.”
