Former Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz denied any role in an alleged email included in a possibly fake document from Russia that led former FBI Director James Comey to announce findings in the Hillary Clinton email probe last year.
"I never saw the e-mail and didn't author it," the Florida Democratic representative told Erin Burnett on CNN on Wednesday. "I have not seen the memo.
"I don't know the individuals that were referenced in the memo – and they do not know me.
"This entire revelation is disturbing."
The Washington Post reported Wednesday the FBI received a purported Russian document during last year's presidential campaign that agency officials believed was "unreliable."
The alleged Russian intelligence document claimed a "tacit" understanding between the Clinton campaign and the Justice Department in its probe of her private email use while secretary of state, the Post reported.
The document described an email Wasserman Schultz allegedly wrote to Leonard Benardo of Open Society Foundations, the nonprofit founded by liberal billionaire George Soros.
Wasserman Schultz allegedly claimed then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch had privately told Amanda Renteria, a senior Clinton campaign staffer, she "would not let the FBI investigation into Clinton go too far," the Post reported.
Current and former U.S. officials told the Post that Comey relied on the fake document to announce his findings last July in the Clinton probe.
Comey, who was fired earlier this month by President Donald Trump, had not cleared his comments beforehand with the Justice Department, which Lynch oversees.
"I've never heard of this person," Wasserman Schultz told Burnett, referring to Benardo. "Don't know him.
"Absolutely have no relationship with someone by that name. Wouldn't know him if I fell over him."
She declined to speculate on Comey's actions in light of the alleged document as well as any role it might have had in the outcome of last November's election.
"It would be irresponsible of me to speculate why Director Comey made decisions and what he made those decisions on," Wasserman Schultz told Burnett.
"What is clear is that the Russians were doing everything they could in a wide variety of ways to influence the outcome of the presidential election.
"This is yet another example of why we need an independent commission to dive deeply and examine independently how the Russians tried to influence the outcome of our election and with whom they cooperated in order to accomplish that goal."
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