- Washington Free Beacon - https://freebeacon.com -

State: Kerry Wants to ‘Dive Deeper’ Into Video Editing Investigation

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday that Secretary of State John Kerry wants to "dive deeper" into the investigation about the editing of a damaging State Department briefing about Iran.

This comes days after Kerry called the edits "stupid" and "inappropriate."

A reporter asked the deputy spokesman Wednesday to clarify a choice of words that Toner had previously used about the decision to excise a portion of a 2013 briefing in which then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki appeared to acknowledge to Fox News that the administration had lied about talks with Iran.

Almost a week prior to this, Toner said the State Department had hit a "dead end" in their investigation, saying they could not find any more information pertaining to the video.

However, he stated Wednesday that they have started to go through emails and other documents from people in leadership positions at the time the editing occurred.

"I mean, you said that the Office of the Legal Advisor was continuing to investigate, but I thought that last week you had said that you had run into a dead end and that if somebody else brought you any information, you would look at it," the reporter said. "So, the investigation continues?"

Toner admitted that he did refer to the state of the investigation as a "dead end." He then stated that the reason he brought up this is because of a change in the way Kerry to approach the matter. He said the Office of the Legal Advisor went back and looked at different outlets that could hold potential information, such as emails.

"You're absolutely right," he said. "I did say that last week, which is why I came out and offered this change, if you will, in our assessment. And that is, basically because the Secretary said he wants to dive deeper into this, look more into what happened, and try to get to the bottom of what happened."