According to Good Morning America's Jon Karl on Thursday, Hillary Clinton will ask Americans to simply trust her when it comes to the growing scandal regarding her e-mails as Secretary of State. Talking to George Stephanopoulos, Karl conceded, "George, this is basically going to be the honor system."
Stephanopoulos, a former top aide in the Bill Clinton White House, carefully asked, "There had been some suggestions earlier that some laws may not have been fully followed. Is that still the case?" Regarding the news that Clinton used a personal e-mail and her own server while in office, Karl parroted, "...The White House believes, if she did what she said she did, she followed the letter of the law if not the spirit of the law."
Regarding the 55,000 pages of e-mails Clinton turned over, the ABC reporter at least reminded, "...Those were e-mails she and her team reviewed. She chose which of her e-mails to turn over to the State Department."
On Wednesday night, Karl referred to Clinton's actions as "a possible violation of federal regulations."
On CBS This Morning, Nancy Cordes made sure to highlight the "Hillary as victim" theme: "Democrats still worry that this is going to give Republicans more ammunition against her if she runs for president."
Cordes added, "Increasingly they fear that if she is the only major Democratic candidate, that she's going have a huge target on her back." The journalist explained, "Experts say having her own server gave the former Secretary of State the ability to retain what she wanted and remove the rest."
On Wednesday, the NBC Nightly News tried to deflect from Hillary Clinton by invoking Jeb Bush as a comparison.
A transcript of the March 5 GMA segment is below:
7:11am ET
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We're going to turn now to the latest fallout from the controversy over Hillary Clinton's e-mails. She responded overnight with a tweet saying she's asked the State Department to publicly release her e-mails and this comes after a House committee investigating the Benghazi terror attacks subpoenaed that personal e-mail account. ABC's Jon Karl joins us with the latest. So, Jon, which e-mails will the public see and when are we likely to see them?
JON KARL: Well, George, this is basically going to be the honor system. The e-mails to be released will come from the 55,000 pages of e-mails that Mrs. Clinton turned over to the State Department late last year. But, remember, those were e-mails she and her team reviewed. She chose which of her e-mails to turn over to the State Department. So the bottom line is people will have to trust that she has turned over all relevant official documents to the State Department. As for when, the State Department only will say it'll take some time to review the e-mails. I would expect this process to take months, not weeks.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And, Jon, there had been some suggestions earlier that some laws may not have been fully followed. Is that still the case?
KARL; Well, that's murky. The Congress is investigating that. It looks, the White House believes, if she did what she said she did, she followed the letter of the law if not the spirit of the law.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, Jon Karl, thanks very much.
