Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman said Sunday FBI Director James Comey should have reviewed new emails related to the agency’s investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified material before publicly announcing the reopening of the case.
“[He] should have read them first,” John Podesta said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that the letter Comey sent to congressional committee chairman was “long on innuendo [and] short on facts.”
“It may not be about her server, it may not be about her at all,” Podesta added. “Mr. Comey really needs to come forward and explain why he took that step.”
Podesta and other Democrats have downplayed the significance of the FBI’s decision to reopen its previously closed investigation into Clinton’s email server, suggesting it has more to do with politics and creating a “distraction” in the final leg of the election.
“If they’re not significant, they’re not significant,” Podesta said of the thousands of newly-discovered emails recently unearthed by FBI officials on devices owned by top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner.
Abedin, he noted, is still fully involved in the Clinton campaign and has been “completely cooperative” with federal investigators, Podesta said.
“It’s clear that she complied to the best of her ability and turned over what she had in her possession,” he noted. “I don’t think she knows anything more than what we’ve seen in the press today.”
