"As you know the president has offered clemency to a substantial number of Americans who were previously serving time in federal prisons," Josh Earnest said. | AP Photo White House doesn't take potential Clinton pardon off the table

The White House on Wednesday refused to say whether President Barack Obama would consider pardoning Hillary Clinton for her email scandal, but appeared to issue a warning to President-elect Donald Trump, saying powerful people should not exploit the criminal justice system for "political revenge."

As the Republican nominee, Trump has repeatedly suggested that Clinton could be thrown in jail during his presidency for mishandling classified materials through the private email server she used as secretary of state. Now that Trump is president-elect, Obama faces the delicate question of whether to issue a pardon to protect his preferred successor.


White House press secretary Josh Earnest, however, refused to directly address whether Obama was weighing such a move.

"As you know the president has offered clemency to a substantial number of Americans who were previously serving time in federal prisons," Earnest told reporters during the daily briefing. "And we didn't talk in advance about the president's plans to offer clemency to any of those individuals and that is because we don't talk about the president's thinking, particularly with respect to any specific cases that may apply to pardons or commutations."

He added, "We have a long tradition in this country of people in power not using the criminal justice system to enact political revenge. In fact we go a long way to insulate the criminal justice system from partisan politics."

Earnest, however, did offer praise for Trump's magnanimous tone during his victory speech last night and said he hoped that might be indicative of what Americans see going forward.

"I would direct you to the remarks the president made in the Rose Garden about the tone president-elect Trump displayed in his remarks last night," Earnest said. "And that tone was consistent with the long-standing traditions of our democracy and the president expressed hope that kind of tone would continue."

Obama said he was "heartened" by Trump's speech last night and his brief conversation with the president-elect, who Obama invited to the White House on Thursday.

"We're not Republicans first," Obama said Wednesday afternoon in the Rose Garden. "We are Americans first. We're patriots first. We all want what's best for this country. That's what I heard in Mr. Trump's remarks last night. That's what I heard when I spoke to him. Directly. And I was heartened by that."

