Fox News’ Bret Baier has apologized for mistakenly claiming an indictment was “likely” in the FBI investigation into the alleged pay-to-play schemes of the Clinton Foundation.
On Wednesday, Baier said FBI sources told him about the indictment and said the investigation into the Foundation had been ongoing for more than a year. He also said the sources believed with 99-percent accuracy that Clinton’s private email server had been hacked. On Friday, Baier walked back some of his language while speaking with fellow Fox host Jon Scott on “Happening Now.”
“All the time, but especially in a heated election on a topic this explosive, every word matters – no matter how well-sourced,” Baier said. “Which brings me to this: I explained a couple of times yesterday the phrasing of one of my answers to [Fox host] Brit Hume on Wednesday night, saying it was inartful the way I answered [a] question about whether the investigations would continue after the election.”
“And I answered that, yes, our sources said it would, they would continue to likely an indictment,” he added. “Well that wasn’t just inartful. It was a mistake. And for that, I’m sorry.”
Further, Baier said “Indictment is obviously a very loaded word” and that “no one knows if there would or would not be an indictment.”
Baier, however, said he stood by reports that the investigation into the Foundation was ongoing.
On Thursday, I noted my skepticism of his original report, writing that the Clintons always seem to avoid punishment and that putting trust in anonymous sources this close to the election was unwise.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
