Powell: Clinton’s team trying to falsely blame him for email scandal

Retired US Army general and former statesman Colin Powell is coming out in regards to his alleged involvement in the Hillary Clinton email scandal, saying the Clinton team is trying to falsely blame him and exaggerate his role in the controversy, going so far as to potentially fabricate falsehoods.

Clinton reportedly told the FBI that former Secretary of State Powell was the one who advised her to use a personal email account at a private dinner, according to Page Six,

Powell, however, reported last week that he had no recollection of the conversation.

“The truth is she was using it (her personal email) for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did [during my term as secretary of state], he said on Saturday. “Her people have been trying to pin it on me.”

When asked why he felt the Clinton team was attempting to blame him, he angrily responded with “Why do you think?!”

Powell then remarked that he wasn’t going to worry about the situation.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It’s okay, I’m free.”

The FBI included the Clinton’s story about Powell’s advice in their notes that were handed in to Congress on Tuesday, despite the fact that FBI Director James Comey had previously decided not to pursue charges against the Democratic presidential nominee.

Meanwhile, Journalist Joe Conason reported that a conversation between Clinton and Powell did take place during a dinner party hosted by Madeline Albright, which he added to his upcoming book, Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton.

“Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer,” Conason wrote. “Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department,” Powell “thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier- to keep her personal account and use it for most messages.”

Interestingly, Powell never had a server at his house or used outside contractors -something Clinton already had- and during his time in officer, the rules governing electronic communications became more restricted.

Powell’s office released a statement on Thursday stating that Powell had no recollection of the dinner conversation, though he did write Clinton an email about his use of personal email for unclassified material “and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department.”

A former four-star general, Powell served in the Vietnam War, as well as the invasion of Grenada in 1983 and the Persian Gulf War of 1991.