Webb Hubbell, a former assistant attorney general who was Hillary Clinton's law partner, tells Newsmax TV the Democratic presidential nominee can be forgiven for not remembering being briefed on how to preserve government records.
"I'm an old football player and I can't remember everything I did," Hubbell told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Thursday.
"I think we all have memory lapses and when … somebody comes into your office and says, 'here I'm going to give you a security briefing' and then 10 years later they're going around asking what did he say, you're not going to remember much about it."
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Clinton, under questioning by the FBI earlier this year into her use of an unauthorized private email system, said she was recovering from a concussion suffered in a fall in December 2012 and could not recall being briefed about saving government records as she stepped down as secretary of state.
Webb Hubbell, author of "A Game of Inches: A Jack Patterson Thriller," published by Beaufort Books, said "there has been no evidence" that Clinton's use of a private server jeopardized the nation's national security.
"There's a lot of allegations but I don't even think the FBI said that there was any evidence that our national security was put at risk," Hubbell told Malzberg.
"She admitted it was a mistake, she wouldn't do it again and we should all learn from our mistakes and go on. Gee whiz, I don't know anybody who had never made a mistake in their life."
As to whether Clinton will win the general election in November, Hubbell was adamant.
"Oh yeah. She's still going to be elected president of the United States. Absolutely … As she takes office and as she leads, as this country needs to be led, her numbers will go back up," he said.
Hubbell also commented on former President Bill Clinton's remark that Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again" was actually a dog whistle to racists. "If you're a white Southerner, you know exactly what it means, don't you?" Clinton said.
"I wouldn't agree with Bill on that," Hubbell said. "He's the former president but you know people say things during political campaigns that they shouldn't."
Hubbell also called for the rhetorical tone of the campaign to come down a few notches.
"We have ISIS, we have an immigration problem, we have an economy that needs a lot of help. Why don't we talk about those and not about emails and not about putting one group of people down and raising one group of people up?" Hubbell asked.
"We all rise with the tide. What we should be doing is talking about the issues that the president has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Who's better qualified to be president? In my opinion it's Hillary."
Hubbell's latest novel is the third in the successful Patterson series about a crime solving Washington, D.C. lawyer.
"It begins with the NFL's rookie wide receiver of the year found in a hotel room in Washington D.C., The Mayflower Hotel, with a dead woman in his bed and his fingerprints are all over the bloody knives that caused her death," Hubbell explained.
"Of course, Jack Patterson is called in to find out what really happened in the hotel room that night."
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