--- title: President Obama Criticizes FBI Chief on Clinton Email Probe description: We don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made," Obama said canonical: https://time.com/4555088/president-obama-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-02T17:02:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:34:47.677Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Criticizes FBI Chief on Disclosure of New Hillary Clinton Email Probe og:description: "We don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made," Obama said og:url: https://time.com/4555088/president-obama-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aee34dfa3e8ca95/6988acbdfb4eacd47b88fb76/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Campaigns For Hillary Clinton In Ohio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Criticizes FBI Chief on Disclosure of New Hillary Clinton Email Probe twitter:description: "We don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made," Obama said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aee34dfa3e8ca95/6988acbdfb4eacd47b88fb76/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Criticizes FBI Chief on Disclosure of New Hillary Clinton Email Probe by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 2, 2016 5:02 PM UTC  President Obama speaks during a campaign event for Hillary Clinton at Capital University on Nov. 1, 2016 in Columbus, OH. President Obama speaks during a campaign event for Hillary Clinton at Capital University on Nov. 1, 2016 in Columbus, OH.Ty Wright—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 2, 2016 5:02 PM UTC President Obama offered his first public comments on the [FBI director James Comey’s](http://time.com/4551810/hillary-clinton-emails-answers/)[ recent letter to Congress](http://time.com/4551810/hillary-clinton-emails-answers/) about new information he says is “pertinent” to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in an interview that was published on Wednesday. While Obama said he makes a “deliberate effort” to ensure it doesn’t appear that he’s meddling in “independent processes,” he suggested that the director deviated from a known norm with the release of the letter. “I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations, we don’t operate on innuendo. We don’t operate on incomplete information. We don’t operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made,” he told [NowThisNews](https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/793818953755742209). The President’s comments come just days after White House press secretary Josh Earnest [refused to weigh in on the letter](http://time.com/4551972/hillary-clinton-emails-fbi-barack-obama-james-comey/), despite a number of Republican and Democrats saying they thought director James Comey’s actions were inappropriate. “When this was investigated thoroughly the last time, the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the Justice Deptartment. The conclusion of repeated congressional investigation was that she had made some mistakes but there wasn’t anything there that was prosecutable, Obama added. > [](https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/793818953755742209) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4555088/president-obama-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4555088/president-obama-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/"},"headline":"President Obama Criticizes FBI Chief on Disclosure of New Hillary Clinton Email Probe","datePublished":"2016-11-02T17:02:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:34:47.677Z","description":"\"We don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made,\" Obama said","url":"https://time.com/4555088/president-obama-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","FBI","Clinton","emails","James Comey"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aee34dfa3e8ca95/6988acbdfb4eacd47b88fb76/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2aee34dfa3e8ca95/6988acbdfb4eacd47b88fb76/obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Campaigns For Hillary Clinton In Ohio","caption":"President Obama Campaigns For Hillary Clinton In Ohio","creditText":"Ty Wright—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4555088/president-obama-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/","name":"President Obama Criticizes FBI Chief on Disclosure of New Hillary Clinton Email Probe"}}]}] ```