Obama breaks silence on FBI after email probe announcement: 'We don't operate on innuendo'

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Barack Obama

Ty Wright/Getty Images

Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama offered his first comments on the FBI in an interview published on Wednesday, days after Director James Comey announced the bureau was examining new emails related to the probe into Hillary Clinton's private server.

Obama told NowThisNews, a left-leaning outlet, that the "norm" for his administration is "we don't operated on incomplete information" and "leaks."

"I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don't operate on innuendo and we don't operate on incomplete information and we don't operate on leaks," he said in the interview. "We operate based on concrete decisions that are made."

"When this was investigated thoroughly last time the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the Justice Department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations was she had made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was prosecutable," the president added.

Obama said, however, he did not want to meddle in the process.

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Comey came under fire from Democrats and some political analysts for notifying Congress in a short letter that an unrelated investigation turned up "pertinent" emails related to Clinton's case. The announcement was made just 11 days prior to Election Day.

The FBI director had previously determined over the summer that Clinton acted with "extreme carelessness" in using the server while serving as secretary of state, but concluded at the time that "no reasonable" prosecutor would go forward with a case.

Multiple reports said Comey went against the recommendation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch in sending his letter to Congress. During a rally in Ohio this week, Clinton insisted the FBI will not come to any new conclusions and that the agency has "no case" against her.

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