Donald Trump seemed to be walking back comments that he would unequivocally pursue a criminal indictment against Hillary Clinton. | AP Photo Donald Trump: Clinton won't be indicted

Alleging that “she’s being protected,” Donald Trump said Wednesday he did not think Hillary Clinton would be indicted for the email controversy that the FBI is investigating.

The 2016 Republican front-runner argued that the Democratic Party will protect Clinton from an indictment on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” when host Bill O’Reilly asked Trump if he “wanted to make a prediction tonight?”


“Do you think Hillary Clinton will be indicted?” O’Reilly said.

“No,” Trump responded. “I think that what she has done is very, very serious.”

The New York businessman then compared Clinton’s email controversy to the one involving Gen. David Petreaus. “I know for a fact that what Gen. Petraeus and others have done was much less,” Trump said. “So I do believe Bill, that she’s being protected.”

O’Reilly challenged the real-estate mogul: “But how can the Democratic Party protect her from the FBI? Isn’t the FBI non-corruptible?”

“I hope they’re not working together,” Trump answered.

He then said that should he be elected president he would look into pursuing charges before the statute of limitations is up, but that he “would only do something if it was 100 percent fair.”

Petraeus resigned as director of the CIA in 2012 after news reports emerged of an affair he had with his biographer. He also improperly exchanged information with her and subsequently pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information.

Trump seemed to be walking back his initial stance that he would unequivocally pursue criminal charges against Clinton regarding her emails. In March, when Sean Hannity asked whether Trump would pursue a criminal indictment of the Democratic front-runner at a Fox News town hall, Trump responded, “You have to.”

Later that month, Trump reinforced his position, saying that he would potentially nominate Supreme Court justices who “would look very seriously at her email disaster.”

