President Barack Obama warned against FBI "leaks" and
"innuendo" in his first public comments about the agency's decision
to disclose its new review into emails that could be relevant to
Hillary Clinton's use of a private server while she was secretary
of state.
Speaking to NowThisNews in an interview released Wednesday,
Obama said he didn't want to meddle in the law enforcement process.
But he criticized any action that might allow intimations or
suggestions -- rather than facts -- to pervade the public's view of
the case.
"I do think that there is a norm that when there are
investigations, we don't operate on innuendo and we don't operate
on incomplete information and we don't operate on leaks," Obama
said in the interview, which was taped Tuesday. "We operate based
on concrete decisions that are made."
Obama did not mention FBI Director James Comey by name, although
he was asked a question specifically about Comey's decision to make
the information public days before the presidential election. And
he wasn't outwardly critical of any specific move made by the
department, noting that he didn't want to be seen as influencing
the investigation. But he did downplay the implications of the
Clinton email investigation, saying the matter had been
resolved.
"Obviously, it's become a political controversy," he said. "The
fact of the matter is that Hillary Clinton, having been in the
arena for 30 years, oftentimes gets knocked around and people say
crazy stuff about her and when she makes a mistake, an honest
mistake, it ends up getting blown up as if it's some crazy
thing."
"I trust her. I know her," Obama continued. "And I wouldn't be
supporting her if I didn't have absolute confidence in her
integrity and making sure that young people have a better
future."
Comey sent a letter to members of Congress on Friday saying his
bureau was looking into recently discovered emails that could
"pertinent" to the investigation into Clinton's use of a private
server.
The move sent Democrats scrambling in the campaign's final
stretch. Many Clinton supporters have accused the FBI director --
formerly a registered Republican -- of inserting himself into the
race to affect its outcome, though the White House has said those
suggestions are unfounded.
Earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said
he would neither "defend nor criticize" Comey's decision, and said
Obama maintained his confidence in the director's ability to carry
out his job.
Obama, in his interview, avoided wading specifically into the
email matter. He said the FBI's previous investigations into the
server had concluded Clinton hadn't acted criminally.
"When this was investigated thoroughly last time the conclusion
of the FBI, the conclusion of the Justice Department, the
conclusion of repeated congressional investigations was she had
made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was
prosecutable," Obama said.