ABC's Martha Raddatz pressed Hillary Clinton supporter and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Sunday on "embarrassing emails" that show overlapping interests between the Clinton Foundation and Clinton's State Department.
Nearly 300 pages of emails released this week include one of a Clinton Foundation official directing top aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills "to put Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor, in contact with the State Department's "substance person" on Lebanon," according to CNN.
"You don't see anything wrong with a billionaire businessman donating to the foundation and then asking Clinton's senior State Department aides for favors?" Raddatz asked.
Panetta said he did not see anything wrong with it.
"I think the question is, whether anything was done in return for that kind of donation," he said.
Raddatz asked Panetta if he thought there was a conspiracy against her by the Right.
"No, I think this is politics," he said. "It's been politics for a long time ... But on the other hand, I have always found both of them [Bill and Hillary Clinton] to be first and foremost committed to the country and doing what's right for the country."
Raddatz pressed back.
"And yet, these latest emails and there were more this week that hadn't been turned over to the State Department, play further into this notion that Americans don't trust her," she said. "You have known the Clintons for decades. Have you ever or would you like to sit down with them and say, ‘Look, this looks bad, there's got to be a different way to handle it?’"
Panetta said that the Justice Department has taken no action against the Clintons about this, so the public ought to just move on and focus on the issues.
"But, Secretary Panetta, that is an issue, those emails are issues," she said. "Director Comey said she was extremely careless."