Morning Joe panelist Mark Halperin said Tuesday that senior State Department official Patrick Kennedy was essentially doing "the bidding of Hillary Clinton" when he allegedly pressured the FBI into declassifying one of Clinton's private emails.
Newly released FBI notes from the investigation into Clinton reveal a federal agent alleging Kennedy sought a "quid pro quo" over the classification of one of Clinton's emails. Reportedly, they discussed a deal where, if the email was marked down, the State Department would sign off on placing more FBI agents in Iraq.
Both the FBI and State Department strongly denied this happened.
Halperin acknowledged that the State Department often fights with other agencies about classification.
"In this case, though, Mr. Kennedy was doing, in effect, the bidding of Hillary Clinton," he said. "We don't know very much, in part, because the FBI has done an outrageous thing. A couple weeks before Election Day, they selectively put out documents that they shouldn't be putting out. That creates suspicion and justified suspicion."
Both Halperin and Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough ripped FBI Director James Comey for his handling of the entire affair. Scarborough has been strongly critical of Comey ever since the public statement he gave in July about the investigation. Comey revealed the agency wasn't recommending charges but had found Clinton to be "extremely careless" with classified information.