Clinton tweaks answer on email findings

Democratic nominee says she didn’t ‘knowingly’ send or receive classified material

WASHINGTON— Hillary Clinton sought again to clarify her past statements about whether she handled classified material on her private email, saying she gave truthful answers to the FBI and that those were “consistent” with what she’s said in public.

Clinton, responding to questions from reporters at a gathering of black and Hispanic journalists in Washington, insisted Friday there was no contradiction between her asser- tions that she didn’t knowingly send or receive classified material through her private system while secretary of state and the results of a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe.

The Democratic presidential nominee was criticized earlier this week for suggesting during an interview with Fox News Sunday that FBI director James Comey had said her past statements on the email issue were “truthful.”

Comey told a congressional panel July 7 that he was “not qualified” to say whether Clinton had lied to the U.S. public and that he would not “get in the business of trying to parse and judge her public statements.”

But he also said there was no evidence that she lied in an interview with the FBI.

On Friday, Clinton sought to thread through those remarks, saying she “may have short-circuited” her answer.

“My answers to the FBI were truthful,” Clinton said, and that “was consistent with what I said publicly.”

As the email controversy has dogged her presidential campaign, Clinton has shifted her language in talking about the emails and included caveats, saying that she didn’t knowingly send or receive material that was marked classified at the time.

She added, after the FBI concluded its investigation and recommended that no criminal charges be filed, that she didn’t believe she had sent classified or confidential material.