The White House has a rather unfavorable view of a report suggesting that Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s senior adviser, leaked news of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“It’s utter baloney,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday.
The New York Post late Saturday published an article saying that Jarrett, Obama’s closest confidant, was behind the leak of Clinton’s personal emails. The paper said the White House was intentionally trying to sabotage the presumptive Democratic frontrunner’s campaign.
Though the White House has been visibly frustrated by Clinton’s slow response to the uproar over her emails, Obama likely sees the expected candidacy of his former secretary of state at the surest way to protect his legacy.
The revelation that the former first lady relied exclusively on a private email domain and server as secretary of state has exposed tensions between the Obama and Clinton camps. The White House has been forced to play Clinton’s surrogate ever since her actions were revealed.
The existence of the Clinton emails came to light during a Republican investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Addressing the controversy for the first time recently, Clinton acknowledged that she had deleted more than 30,000 emails she considered “personal.”
