White House not given advance notice of Comey's Sunday announcement

The White House was not given advance notice of FBI Director James Comey’s latest announcement on the Hillary Clinton email investigation, its top spokesman said Monday.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest acknowledge that he was essentially repeating the talking points he delivered last week in response to Comey’s updates to Congress about emails from Clinton’s private server. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Earnest said he was, once again, “not prepared to defend nor criticize” Comey’s decision to announce on Sunday that the 650,000 new emails had been examined and did not change his decision not to charge Clinton.


“The White House was not informed in advance of Director Comey’s decision to send the letter yesterday. The president believes that those decisions are best left to professionals at the Department of Justice and the FBI who have a responsibility to set aside their own personal views and focus on the facts of the investigation,” Earnest said. He was speaking to reporters en route to Ann Arbor, Michigan, the first of three campaign stops President Barack Obama will make for Clinton on the eve of the election.

The investigation into Clinton’s emails has consistently put the White House in an awkward spot. Officials are determined not to appear to be intervening in the politically-charged inquiry into Obama’s chosen successor.

“The White House has not been briefed on this investigation over the course the last year and a half,“ Earnest said Monday. That’s true as well, he added, “over the last week and a half.”

He added, “The president is entirely confident that director Comey is not using his authority to advantage a particular candidate or a particular political party.”

While Earnest -- and Obama -- used the same language when Comey told Congress in late October that the FBI would examine emails discovered on Anthony Weiner’s computer, they also pointedly praised the longstanding tradition of federal law enforcement officials not sharing incremental details of investigations, at all times but especially around an election.

“I would acknowledge that much of the debate over the last ten days has been concentrated around director Comey’s decision,” Earnest said. “That’s an objective fact for anybody that’s been watching television or reading the newspaper or checking Twitter.”

Donald Trump and his allies have questioned how the FBI was able to examine so many emails in such a short period of time. Earnest referred those questions to the Justice Department and the FBI.

