By Deirdre Walsh
WASHINGTON — (CNN) House Speaker Paul Ryan accused the FBI Tuesday of playing politics with the release of details about their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email, citing the bureau’s decision to publicly reveal information at the onset of Labor Day weekend.
“It’s like the most buried time you could ever put out a story. I’m surprised. I can’t believe that they would do what is such a patently political move.
It makes them look like political operators versus law enforcement officers,” Ryan said in a radio interview with WRJN’s Glenn Klein.
“The fact that they chose the Friday before Labor Day to put all this out there — it mystifies me as to why they thought that was a smart thing to do.”
Asked about FBI Director James Comey, Ryan said, “He is a credible guy who has a credible background. I disagree with his conclusion.”
Ryan added that the question remaining about the Democratic presidential nominee is “the connection between the Clinton Foundation and official acts of the State Department.”
The speaker didn’t mention Donald Trump’s name during the interview, and wasn’t asked about the GOP nominee.
But when asked by Klein about potentially dealing with Clinton in the White House, Ryan said, “That’s the last person I want to see become president: Hillary Rodham Clinton. I think she has real trust issues, real credibility issues.”
The Wisconsin Republican also used the interview to blast the Obama administration’s decision to hand over $400 million in cash to the Iranian government in conjunction with the release of American prisoners earlier this year.
“The last thing you want to be the lasting impression of America is that we will pay cash for hostages because all you are doing is encouraging more hostage taking,” Ryan said.
He added that the money, which he and other Republicans denounced as a ransom, “is more than appeasement. This more than accommodating what I think is a really bad agreement. They are bending over backwards to accommodate Iran, and let’s just remember who they are: they are the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terrorism — they finance terrorism all across the world.”
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(Photo: CNN)
