A former FBI agent claimed he had discussed a request with a State Department official to change the classification of an email of Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state, The Washington Post reported.
FBI official Brian McCauley, however, clarified that it was not a part of any bargain. Both FBI and the State Department have denied that McCauley and Patrick Kennedy ever engaged in "quid pro quo."
In an interview with The Post, McCauley recalled a 2015 phone call in which he said the two officials raised something that they wanted.
"He said: 'Brian. Pat Kennedy. I need a favor,'" McCauley told the Post. "I said: 'Good, I need a favor. I need our people back in Baghdad."
According to McCauley, Kennedy replied: "There's an email. I don't believe it has to be classified."
McCauley admitted that he had agreed to do Kennedy a favor, but after consulting with another FBI official about the concerned email, he refused to help Kennedy. He said there was no "collusion" between the two men and nothing improper occurred.
Meanwhile, in a statement released by the State Department, Kennedy said he had called the agent, who was identified as McCauley, "to better understand a proposal the FBI had made to upgrade one of former Secretary Clinton's emails prior to its public release."
Kennedy said he and other State Department officials wanted an explanation of an upgrade of one of Clinton's emails prior to its public release, which the officials believed was unnecessary.
"The FBI official I spoke to raised the topic of FBI Iraq slots as an entirely separate matter," Kennedy said. "The two matters were not linked. There was no quid pro quo, nor was there any bargaining. At no point in our conversation was I under the impression we were bargaining."
"In the end, State upgraded the email at the FBI's request and in addition, no increase in FBI Iraq slots resulted from this conversation," Kennedy further clarified.
Despite the State Department and FBI's denial that there had been a quid pro quo, Republicans seized on the report as collusion within the Obama administration to protect Clinton.
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