Former top Clinton aide comes under criticism

President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to suggest that Huma Abedin should face jail time over confidential emails.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to suggest that Huma Abedin, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton, should face jail time, days after the State Department posted emails found on her estranged husband’s computer that included confidential government information.

In a tweet, Trump also urged the Justice Department to act in prosecuting Abedin and former FBI director James Comey, whom the president fired in May amid the mounting investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and contacts between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.

Trump tweeted “Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others”

The president’s tweet came just days after the State Department posted online thousands of Abedin’s emails, which were captured on the computer of Anthony Weiner, her estranged husband.

Those emails — some of which contained classified information — spurred the FBI in October to reopen its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, though the bureau would ultimately conclude the messages gave them no reason to change their conclusion not to recommend charges against Clinton or any of her aides.

The tweet also came after a Daily Caller report that Abedin had “forwarded sensitive State Department emails, including passwords to government systems, to her personal Yahoo email account.”

Comey had said, even as he recommended they not be charged, that Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information, and the president’s tweet seizes on that theme.

Comey has said, too, that while the FBI did not find evidence that Clinton’s personal email domain was hacked, they would not likely see such evidence and that hostile actors had gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Clinton was in contact.

A Clinton spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. Dan Schwerin, a former Clinton campaign speechwriter, defended Abedin on Twitter.

Schwerin tweeted “.@SenJohnMcCain said it best back in 2012: Sliming Huma is an ‘unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman, a dedicated American, and a loyal public servant’ ”

Trump has long suggested Clinton be prosecuted for her use of the private server and, while he backed off that sentiment soon after his election, he has renewed the calls in recent months as he has repeatedly attacked his own Justice Department.

His comment on the “sailors pictures” seems to be a reference to 30-year-old Kristian Saucier, who was sentenced to a year in prison for taking photos in a classified area of a nuclear submarine.

Trump has compared that case to the Clinton email probe, suggesting Clinton was given leniency that others weren’t.

Saucier, though, tried to destroy evidence, which is critical evidence of bad intent that investigators found lacking in the Clinton case.

Trump has accused Comey of leaking sensitive information after the former director testified that he had asked a friend to pass on notes he had taken of his interactions with Trump to a reporter for The New York Times in hopes of securing a special prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation. Ethics experts said Comey’s actions appeared to be legally protected, provided he did not disclose classified information.

In his tweet, Trump referred to the “Deep State Justice Department,” an apparent reference to the president’s contention that some elements of the U.S. intelligence apparatus have attempted to undermine his election.