The Clinton campaign has reacted to a report Thursday evening by NBC’s Pete Williams, in which he said “the idea that indictments are near” in an investigation of the Clinton Foundation “…I’m told is just not true.”
Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said in light of the report, the FBI should make a public statement “to put a stop to these baseless Fox News reports” suggesting Hillary Clinton could face an indictment, and that, as The Wall Street Journal has reported, that a “feud” existed between the FBI and Department of Justice over pursuing an investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
Williams’ report, which aired on MSNBC’s MTP Daily, comes in the wake of Fox News Channel anchor Bret Baier‘s report Wednesday night that an investigation “into possible pay-for-play interaction between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Foundation” is a “very high priority” and that “agents are actively and aggressively pursuing this case.”
Williams, asked by anchor Chuck Todd about the status of the FBI investigation into the Foundation, said “there really isn’t one.”
Meanwhile ABC News, citing its own sources, says that reports of an investigation into the Clinton Foundation “are inaccurate and without merit.”
Fox News evp of news editorial, Jay Wallace, told TVNewser “we stand by the reporting of the Fox News team.”
UPDATE: In an appearance on FNC’s Happening Now Friday, Baier clarified his original reporting, calling it “a mistake.”
I explained a couple of times yesterday the phrasing of one of my answers to Brit Hume on Wednesday night, saying it was inartful the way I answered the last question about whether the investigations would continue after the election and I answered that, “yes, our sources said it would. They would continue to likely an indictment.” That just wasn’t inartful, it was a mistake and for that I’m sorry. I should have said they will continue to build their case. Indictment obviously is a very loaded word, Jon, especially in this atmosphere and no one knows if there would or would not be an indictment no matter how strong investigators feel their evidence is. It’s obviously a prosecutor who has to agree to take the case and make that case to the grand jury. We stand by the sourcing on the ongoing active Clinton Foundation investigation and are working to get sources with knowledge of the details on the record and on camera, hopefully today.”