Obama caught in middle of unseemly spat over Clinton emails

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest clamor over Hillary Clinton's emails has put Barack Obama in a spot where no president wants to be: caught between his attorney general, his FBI director and his preferred White House successor.

With accusations of political interference flying, Obama is trying to keep his distance as an internal government spat bursts into public view.

Democrats hope Obama's hands-off approach to the FBI forms a powerful contrast to Trump, whose insistence that Clinton should be in prison seems to skip a few steps of due process.

In a stunning airing of internal disagreement, some Justice Department officials blamed the FBI by making clear to reporters that they had cautioned Comey against notifying Congress just before next Tuesday's election, and he'd ignored their advice.

Deploying rhetorical gymnastics, Earnest said Obama believed strongly in centuries-old FBI and Justice Department traditions "that limit public discussion of investigations."