FBI, State Dept. official say no talk of email quid pro quo

WASHINGTON (AP) — A now-retired FBI agent and a State Department official involved in a discussion over the classification of information in one of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails said Tuesday they had discussed mutual agency requests but had not linked the two as a bargain, as another FBI employee had reported.

The two men's accounts of a 2015 conversation were not identical and will likely not calm the furor over allegations of the State Department trying to arrange a "quid pro quo" to reduce the classification of an email from Clinton's private server in exchange for more FBI positions at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

The issue was thrust into the presidential campaign Monday when the FBI published documents containing the allegation, which has been seized upon by Republican lawmakers and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In a statement released by the State Department, Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy said he had called the agent, who was not named in the FBI documents but was identified by The Washington Post as Brian McCauley, "to better understand a proposal the FBI had made to upgrade one of former Secretary Clinton's emails prior to its public release."

[...] State upgraded the email at the FBI's request and in addition, no increase in FBI Iraq slots resulted from this conversation.

According to McCauley's account, Kennedy replied: There's an email.

The ambiguities laid bare in the FBI documents — summaries of interviews — are fairly standard for criminal investigations, where different witnesses offer different accounts of the same interaction and agents and prosecutors behind closed doors are left to try to determine the truth.