The White House’s top spokesman sidestepped a question about whether President Obama is concerned that Hillary Clinton may have exposed sensitive information to foreign hackers while using a private email server as secretary of state.
In explaining his decision not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that there is a possibility that hostile actors could have invaded her email communications on her private server.
Asked about the vulnerability caused by Clinton’s email server, White House press secretary Josh Earnest only repeated Comey’s findings.
“Well, just based on what Director Comey said publicly, I think he indicated that he couldn’t say one way or the other whether or not there had been an intrusion,” Earnest told reporters traveling with the president to Poland Thursday. “They did not find any evidence that there was, again, based on what he said publicly.”
He was not asked whether Clinton and her top aides should retain their security clearances after the FBI found them to be extremely carless in thier handling of classified information on the private email server. Republicans have called on the administration to revoke the clearances.
Earnest then went on to discuss the threats foreign hacking poses for the entire federal government and the private sector, calling it a “significant challenge.”
“We’ve discussed steps that the State Department has had to take to bolster their cyberdefenses, based on reports that they had been the victim of a significant breach,” he said. “So this is a challenge that people in and out of government are dealing with. And it certainly is a challenge that we take seriously.”
Earnest noted that the president still has not received a briefing on the details of the case because he continues to stress the importance of the FBI to maintain its independence free from even a perception of political interference.
“The president believed it was important for independent investigators to make their own determination, and that’s exactly what they did,” he said.
Based on his knowledge of the case that is now in the public domain, however, Obama has not hesitated in his unwavering support for Clinton’s campaign to succeed him in the White House.
“There’s nothing that’s transpired in the last 72 hours that has caused him in any way to reconsider his enthusiastic support for her campaign,” Earnest said.
