Hillary trashes FBI for poll loss

Wikileaks, Russia contributed to election defeat, says former secretary of state

Hillary Clinton has blamed FBI director James Comey and Russian interference for her defeat in last year’s presidential elections, saying they “scared off” voters and deprived her of an otherwise expected victory.

The former Democratic presidential nominee, speaking during a charity luncheon, said she takes “personal responsibility” for her loss to Donald Trump in the presidential race.

“If the election had been on October 27, I’d be your president. And it wasn’t, it was on October 28 and there was just a lot of funny business going on around that,” Ms Clinton told CNN in an interview at Women for Women International Forum in New York.

“It wasn’t a perfect campaign. There is no such thing. But I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off,” she said.

Ms Clinton, 69, highlighted Russia’s role in hacking into her campaign’s internal emails and subsequently coordinating their release on WikiLeaks. “Ask yourself this, within an hour or two of the Hollywood Access tape being made public, the Russian theft of John Podesta’s emails hit WikiLeaks. What a coincidence.”

Hours later, Mr Trump attacked Ms Clinton on Twitter, saying she used the “phony” Russian hacking story as a justification for her loss in the November 8 presidential elections.

“FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!” Mr Trump tweeted.

I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter and WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people — HILLARY CLINTON