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Sidney Blumenthal Laughs At Question About FBI Interview [VIDEO]

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Sidney Blumenthal laughed off questions on Thursday about whether he has been interviewed by the FBI as part of the Hillary Clinton email probe.

The longtime Clinton pal made other news during an interview on CNBC by acknowledging that the bureau is conducting an investigation rather than, as he has claimed, a “security review.”

“Have you met with the FBI about the emails?” co-host Michelle Caruso-Cabrera asked Blumenthal, who frequently emailed Clinton when she was in office.

“Well, as I said I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation,” Blumenthal said, laughing at the question.

“Well at least you called it an investigation,” co-host Joe Kernen chimed in, pointing out that in an interview on Wednesday Blumenthal refused to use the “I-word” to describe the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s email server.

FBI director James Comey commented on Clinton and company’s insistence that the investigation is merely a “security review,” pointing out that he was not familiar with such a term and that the FBI’s name includes the word “investigation.”

During Thursday’s grilling Blumenthal was also asked about his relationship with a company that sought regime change in Libya. Blumenthal frequently sent Clinton intel reports containing information provided to him by a former CIA operative who also had a relationship with the company, a defense contractor called Osprey Global Solutions.

The former Bill Clinton White House claimed that there was nothing unethical in the relationship, which Clinton has said she was not aware of when she communicated with Blumenthal.

“I had no contracts with anybody. I didn’t invest in anybody,” Blumenthal said, adding that he had a “real job” at that time working on education policy at the Clinton Foundation.

He also denied that the State Department was ever influenced by donations made to the Clinton Foundation.

“I think that reports show that there were not donations to the Clinton Foundation that had any influence on State Department policy,” Blumenthal said.

“How would we know donations wouldn’t affect policy?” Caruso-Cabrera asked.

Blumenthal seemed surprised by the follow-up.

“How would you know?” he repeated.

“Well I think there have been some examples that have been reported in The [New York] Times and they have been debunked,” he asserted without providing specifics.

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