White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admits he doesn’t know if any White House officials knew about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server in her home.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Earnest admitted, under pressure from Fox News reporter Ed Henry during the White House Press Briefing.
“They were the ones who were reviewing those emails, and they, to their credit, turned them over to the Department of State so that they could be properly preserved and maintained,” he said.
Earnest said that there was no one at the White House involved with the email transfer or reviewing the emails sent to Congress.
“There was not an Obama administration official that was responsible for reviewing those emails, and so that’s why I have deferred to Secretary Clinton’s team on this matter,” he said.
Earnest said he wanted to be “crystal clear” that it was the Clinton’s responsibility to comply with the email release, but added he was not casting doubt on the emails provided by Clinton’s team.
“I don’t mean to suggest that somehow they’re not being honest, I’m just making it clear that it is not something that was a task performed by an Obama administration official, it was a task performed by Secretary Clinton or someone on her team,” he said.
When asked by White House reporter Carol Lee if he trusted Clinton’s review process, Earnest said that he had no reason not to.
“I haven’t seen any evidence to indicate that they didn’t do what they said they did, so I think from that standpoint, I haven’t seen any evidence to indicate that they’re not being forthright about this,” he said.
Earnest also admitted that although he had the opportunity to speak with President Obama yesterday, they did not discuss the email scandal.