Jeffrey Toobin expresses regret over 'mistakes' in Clinton email coverage

The New Yorker and CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin now says he devoted too much attention in 2016 to Hillary Clinton’s private email server, becoming the first big-name journalist to acknowledge having second thoughts about the story since a State Department probe cleared Clinton of serious breaches of rules on Friday.

Toobin told POLITICO he has been flooded with responses since his surprise admission Monday morning on CNN. The feedback has largely fallen into two categories, he said: “Thank you for saying this” and “You’re a jerk, you shouldn't have done it in the first place.”

The conclusion on Friday of a nearly three-year State Department investigation into the Clinton email saga has reignited criticism among Democrats of the news media’s heavy coverage of the issue in the 2016 election. The claims that she had exposed classified secrets through her use of a private server dogged Clinton down to the final days of the campaign, when a surprise admission by then-FBI Director James Comey that the bureau was reopening its probe into the emails corresponded with a last-minute downturn in her polling numbers.

Nonetheless, the State Department found there “was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information” by any officials while Clinton was serving as secretary of State, a conclusion that Democrats quickly seized upon to bemoan the campaign coverage.

“Great job American Media!” Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior Obama adviser and “Pod Save America” co-host,” tweeted along with the news.

“We spent an entire election on this inane story four years ago because a lot of otherwise intelligent people deemed it important,” Rolling Stone’s Jamil Smith tweeted. “Many of them still run media outlets today.”

“I got into the trap of false equivalence during the 2016 campaign. Comparing Donald Trump’s record of ethical problems with Hillary’s emails lent a misleading impression.”- Jeffrey Toobin