TIL Desk/World/Washington-Hillary Clinton has refuted FBI’s charge that she was “extremely careless” with classified information as secretary of state and tried to put the blame on other officials as she offered her first public comments since a probe into her use of private email server was closed this week. The presumptive Democratic nominee in interviews to several US networks tried to move past the controversy that was hung over her presidential bid, saying her use of a private email account as as secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s first term was a “mistake.”
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. “There are about 300 people in the government, mostly in the State Department, but in other high positions in the government with whom I emailed over the course of four years – they, I believe, did not believe they were sending any material that was classified,” Clinton told.
“They were pursuing their responsibilities. I do not think they were careless. And as I have said many times, I certainly did not believe that I received or sent any material that was classified,” Clinton said in the interview. Comey on Tuesday had recommended that no charges be brought over Clinton’s email use from 2009 to 2013. The next day the Justice Department accepted the recommendation, bringing the probe to an end.