Although President Barack Obama appeared certain that his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not endanger national security as a result of her email scandal, it is unclear why.
“I continue to believe that she has not jeopardized America’s national security,” Obama said in an interview with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace, asserting that Clinton “would never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy.”
Today at the White House Press briefing, Josh Earnest assured reporters that the only way Obama was able to make this claim was based on what he had heard in the media.
“The president’s knowledge about this situation is based entirely on public reporting,” Earnest said, adding that Obama had “neither sought nor received a confidential briefing or confidential information about the ongoing investigation.”
Earnest cited the ongoing independent investigation of the case within the Obama administration, citing Attorney General Loretta Lynch and F.B.I. Director James Comey.
“The president does have confidence that those prosecutors and other investigators will exercise their independent judgment, that they’ll set politics aside, and focus on the facts of the case, and they will allow the facts to guide them as they pursue their investigation,” he said.