Clinton seeks to move past email controversy, directs blame at officials

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said she “certainly did not believe” that she was handling classified information on her server at the time, but emphasised that she followed the lead of her subordinates on whether information was classified.

Previously, Clinton had said she never knowingly sent any classified information over her private email system.

“I do not believe that all of the professionals that I dealt with in the State Department were careless in handling classified material”, Clinton said.

She was responding to comments from Comey, who said in two separate settings this week that it was highly likely that Clinton’s email server was infiltrated by sophisticated foreign spy agencies.

Mrs Clinton, who was the department’s most senior classifying authority during her four-year tenure at its helm, did not address the FBI’s conclusion that she herself sent information on topics classified as “top secret”, the highest level, through the private server she kept in her basement.

Obama did say that he shared Comey’s concerns about the treatment of classified mail at the State Department, which Clinton once run.

She strongly disputed the assertion by FBI Director James Comey that she and her aides were “extremely careless” with classified materials, and instead appeared to be putting the responsibility to her State Department staff.

But Clinton yesterday brushed aside the rebuke from Comey in several other interviews. “I’m going to continue to be scrupulous about not commenting on it, primarily just because I think Director Comey could not have been more exhaustive”.

“I do not believe that they did anything that they believed was in any way inappropriate”, she told Holt.

Clinton did not answer direct questions in a CNN interview about whether she would cooperate in the State Department inquiry. Comey said she had multiple devices and that investigators found thousands of work-related emails that had not been turned over.

“I think he was speculating”, Clinton said of Comey’s statements, which he reiterated in sworn testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday.

“There is no evidence”. But she repeatedly noted that information later identified as classified was part of correspondence with hundreds of government officials who did not flag any problem.

“Given the Department of Justice has now made its announcement, the State Department intends to conduct its internal review”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.