White House press secretary Josh Earnest said repeatedly on Monday that he would “neither defend nor criticize” FBI Director James Comey’s disclosures of the new Hillary Clinton email developments.

But Earnest’s non-defense was more emphatic than his non-criticism.

Earnest did reiterate that President Barack Obama thinks Comey is a man of “integrity” who didn’t do anything to “intentionally” influence the impending election when he offered Congress sketchy details about a new line of inquiry into the scandal over Clinton’s use of a private email server at the State Department.

But no less than the “strength of American democracy” depends on longstanding Justice Department guidelines about discussing investigations, Earnest said. They’re the same guidelines Comey seem to have veered from on Friday with his letters to lawmakers and FBI staff. Earnest also essentially acknowledged that his “institutional constraints” as the president’s spokesman were the last thing holding him back.

“The president believes that our democracy has been very well served for more than two centuries by officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI observing longstanding traditions that limit public discussion of investigations, whether an election is around the corner or not,” Earnest said. He later added, “Those norms are important because they protect the rights of people who are being investigated.”

Earnest went on, “So at the end of the day, officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI have a responsibility to live up to those traditions and to follow them, and the president’s expectation is that they will do that.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch and her deputy reportedly urged Comey not to proceed with his plans to tell Congress about newly discovered emails related to Clinton’s private server on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s computer. So Earnest seemed to be offering another tweak when he noted the president’s conviction that departures from those guidelines should be made “in consultation with other officials at the Department of Justice.”

Nonetheless, Earnest said that the president still has confidence in Comey’s integrity, character, and ability to do the job Obama nominated him for three years ago.

“The president is completely confident that Director Comey has not taken any steps to try to intentionally influence the outcome of the election or to advantage one political party,” Earnest said.

But that may have been the effect, he observed.

“We certainly have already seen some of Secretary Clinton’s harshest critics capitalize on this letter — distort its contents — to provoke controversy,” Earnest said.

“That’s why these kinds of guidelines are so important, and that’s why adherence to these guidelines have served our country so well for some time. The strength of our democracy depends on it,” Earnest continued.

Earnest also essentially encouraged reporters to check out the sharp criticism others are lobbing at Comey. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, for example, wrote that Comey “committed a serious error” in a Washington Post op-ed on Monday.

“What is important is that people across the country and former elected officials have more of a luxury to weigh in from the sidelines,” Earnest said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

In not taking an official stance on Comey, Earnest said he was “observing the institutional responsibilities that I have, and that everybody who works here has, including the president of the United States, which is that we’re not going to be in a position of defending or criticizing decisions that were made.”

Earnest did acknowledge that the guidelines he was citing formed the “basis for other people to offer their criticism of Director Comey.”

Holder isn’t Comey’s harshest Democratic critic. That title so far goes to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the minority leader, who suggested that Comey might have “broken the law.”

Earnest at one point showed some sympathy for Comey, saying he’s in a “tough spot.”

At another point, Earnest said Comey has “got a tough job, and hopefully he’ll draw on that character and integrity as he does it.”

Earnest said the reason he couldn’t defend the FBI director is the same reason he couldn’t criticize him: “Nobody at the White House has insight into the decision that Director Comey made.”

Brent Griffiths contributed to this report.

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http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/white-house-james-comey-clinton-fbi-230540