Clinton Campaign Manager Unable to Answer Questions on ‘Hillary Coverup Operation’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper confronted Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook Sunday over an IT worker handling her private email server joking in a 2014 email about a “Hillary coverup operation,” with Mook dodging the question and blaming Republicans for “selectively leaking documents.”

TAPPER: There was a document dump on Friday, that we learned from the FBI that an IT contractor managing Hillary Clinton’s private email server made reference to the “Hillary coverup operation” in a work ticket. He used those words after a senior Clinton aide asked him to automatically delete emails after 60 days. This IT worker certainly sounded like he was covering something up, no?

MOOK: Look, Jake, I’m — first of all I’m glad you asked that question. A lot of this stuff is swirling around in the ether. It’s important to pull back and look at the facts here. The FBI did a comprehensive and deep investigation into this. And at the conclusion of that, FBI Director Comey came out and said to the world that there was no case here, that they have no evidence of wrongdoing on Hillary’s part.

TAPPER: So what’s the “Hillary coverup operation” that the IT worker was referring to?

MOOK: Well, well, but this is — but this is — this is the perfect example of what’s going on here. Republicans on the House side are selectively leaking documents for the purpose of making Hillary look bad. We’ve asked the FBI to release all information that they’ve shared with Republicans so they can get the full picture. But again, I would trust the career professionals at the FBI and the Justice Department who looked into this matter, concluded that was no case, than I would Republicans who are selectively leaking information.

The FBI dumped another 189 pages of documents pertaining to Clinton’s use of an unsecured private server during her time as Secretary of State online Friday, with one note about a “coverup” raising eyebrows:

After reviewing an email dated December 11, 2014 with the subject line ‘RE: 2 items for IT support,’ and a December 12, 2014 work ticket referencing email retention changes and archive/email cleanup, [redacted] stated his reference in the email to ‘…the Hilary [sic] coverup [sic] operation…’ was probably due to the requested change to a 60 day email retention policy and the comment was a joke.

The Trump campaign quickly leapt on the FBI’s findings.

“The fact an IT staffer maintaining Clinton’s secret server called a new retention policy designed to delete emails after 60 days a ‘Hillary coverup operation’ suggests there was a concerted effort to systematically destroy potentially incriminating information. It’s no wonder that at least five individuals tied to the email scandal, including Clinton’s top State Department aide and attorney Cheryl Mills, secured immunity deals from the Obama Justice Department to avoid prosecution,” said Trump spokesman Jason Miller in a statement on Friday.

Comey told the House Oversight Committee on July 7 that the FBI “did not find evidence sufficient to establish that she knew she was sending classified information beyond a reasonable doubt to meet that — the intent standard” while claiming that prosecuting Clinton for gross negligence would perpetuate a “double standard.”