President Obama dismissed reports of a potential quid pro quo between the FBI and the State Department over the classification of an email during the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
“With respect to the State Department and the FBI, the reports … I think you’ve heard directly from both the State Department and the FBI that … the accounts that have been put out there are just not true,” Obama said Tuesday during a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
“And you can question them again,” he continued. “But based on what we’ve seen and heard [and] learned, some of the more sensational implications or appearances as you’ve stated them, aren’t based on actual events or what actually happened.”
Instead of what appears to look like an improper quid pro quo, Obama said, “I think derives from overly broad characterizations” of “interactions” between the State Department and the FBI, which he said “happen a lot between agencies.”
New FBI documents released Monday appear to chronicle discussion of a possible deal between the FBI and the State Department to declassify information found in one of Clinton’s emails in return for allowing the FBI to put some staff on the ground in Iraq.
Republicans have seized on the documents as evidence of a top-level official trying to scrub Clinton’s emails to prevent more criticism that she mishandled classified information while secretary of state, by conducting official business on a private unsecured email server.
Donald Trump has demanded that the State Department fire the official in question, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy. He also pointed to the FBI documents as more proof of a “rigged” election system that is favoring Hillary Clinton.
The White House on Monday slammed Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, for saying the new FBI documents show a “flashing red light of potential criminality.”
Presidential press secretary Josh Earnest went after Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, for his handling of a Benghazi probe, arguing that it was aimed solely at driving down Clinton’s poll numbers. Earnest also went after Chaffetz for using a personal Gmail email account for official lawmaker business.
