Hours After Report Shows Errors In Comey's Testimony, Fox Runs With Botched Facts

Co-Host Meghan McCain Omits Yesterday's ProPublica Report That Huma Abedin Did Not Forward Thousands Of Clinton Emails To Husband

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox's Outnumbered co-host Meghan McCain claimed that former Clinton staffer Huma Abedin forwarded “emails from her boss Hillary Clinton to her husband Anthony Weiner,” failing to note a May 8 ProPublica report that found that “much of what” FBI Director James Comey said during a hearing last month about Abedin's email practices “was inaccurate.” The report states, “FBI officials have privately acknowledged that Comey misstated what Abedin did and what the FBI investigators found.” FBI officials acknowledged that “it was likely that most of the emails got onto the computer as a result of backups of her Blackberry.” According to The Washington Post, “Abedin did occasionally forward emails to her husband for printing, but it was a far smaller number than Comey described” and “none of the forwarded emails were marked classified.” Despite information from this report being republished on several news outlets including Fox News itself, McCain still proceeded to accuse Abedin of committing “a possible crime,” while guest Allen West said that it was “without a doubt a criminal offense.” From the May 9 edition of Fox News' Outnumbered:

MEGHAN MCCAIN (CO-HOST): Something else that caught our eye at yesterday's hearing involving James Clapper and [former U.S. Deputy Attorney General] Sally Yates: the former DNI [Director of National Intelligence] chief indicating that Huma Abedin's decision to forward emails from her boss Hillary Clinton to her husband Anthony Weiner may be an offense that could be referred to the Justice Department as a possible crime. While Clapper never specifically talked about Abedin and Weiner, Senator Ted Cruz [R-TX] asked him about a hypothetical that fits the case. Watch.

[BEGIN VIDEO]

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): What would you do at the DNI if you discovered that an employee of yours had forwarded hundreds or even thousands of emails to a non-government individual, their spouse, on a non-government computer?

JAMES CLAPPER: Well, I'm not an investigatory or prosecutorial element, but if I were aware of it, I would certainly make known to the appropriate officials that that was going on ... Whatever the transgression, the potential transgression was, if there were sufficient evidence of a compromise, we would file a crimes report.

[END VIDEO]

MCCAIN: So Col. West, I have two questions for you. Number one, what's the holdup, then, if this is in fact a crime? And number two, at what point are the Clintons actually going to be held accountable and live by the same laws that you and I sit here abiding by? 

ALLEN WEST: No, you're absolutely right. The holdup is unimaginable, because this is without a doubt a criminal offense. And the fact that we continue to have this us versus them, this political elite that can do whatever it seems that they want to do and fly in the face of all reality and the rule of law when it comes to handling classified material is beyond me.