President Obama Tuesday called reports of collusion between the FBI and State Department over classification of Hillary Clinton’s emails “not true.”

“The notion or the accounts that have been put out there are just not true,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. “You can question [agency officials] again, but based on what we have seen, heard, learned, some of the more sensational implications or appearances … aren’t based on actual events.”

He blamed “overly broad characterizations” of the interaction between the agencies in papers released by the FBI.

In the documents, State Department Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy is discussing with an FBI official the removal of a classified designation from one of Mrs. Clinton’s emails in exchange for favorable treatment for the FBI in placement of agents in countries overseas.

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