Hillary Clinton did not defy protocol when she became ill at the ceremony for the 15th anniversary of 9/11 on Sunday, investigative journalist Ronald Kessler, author of "The First Family Detail," told Newsmax TV.
Clinton was standing by Ground Zero where the Twin Towers fell in Lower Manhattan when she suddenly felt faint and was whisked away to her car, which brought her to her home in upstate Chappaqua.
That sparked reports she broke protocol by not first going to a hospital — which Kessler said is totally false.
"None of it is true," Kessler said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show." "There's no such protocol involving hospitals. The Secret Service does like to take people to hospitals if there's a health issue, but where that person goes is totally up to that person.
"The protectee decides, and if she wants to go to an apartment, then that's up to her. It has nothing to do with the Secret Service . . . So really all of that is a lot of garbage.”
As is the "conspiracy theory" the FBI and its director Jim Comey "took a dive for Hillary for some reason," on whether she should face prosecution for using a private email server while secretary of state, Kessler added.
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He rejected insinuations Comey bowed to President Barack Obama in deciding Clinton broke no laws.
"With any legal matter there are always different opinions . . . the question in the end for any prosecutor is: Are you going to get a jury of 12 people, some of whom may be big Hillary supporters, may admire her, to unanimously decide that she engaged in criminal conduct when she claims she didn't know anything?" said Kessler, a former Washington Post reporter.
"He is a former prosecutor himself. He did consult with prosecutors within the FBI and within [the Department of] Justice, and I know from sources they unanimously said that it was not a winnable case and that is the question."
Kessler's book "The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents," is published by Crown Forum.