On Friday, Fox News anchor Bret Baier apologized for reporting that FBI’s investigation into the Hillary Clinton Foundation was moving toward a “likely indictment.”
“I explained a couple of times yesterday the phrasing of one of my answers to Brit Hume on Wednesday night, saying it was inartful the way I answered the last question about whether the investigations would continue after the election. And I answered that, ‘Yes, our sources said it would, they would continue to likely an indictment,'” he said.
He continued: “Well that wasn’t just inartful. It was a mistake. And for that, I’m sorry, ” Baier said, while speaking to Fox News’ Happening Now.
Instead, Baier, the anchor of Fox News’ Special Report, explained that he should have chosen a different word than “indictment.”
“Indictment is obviously a very loaded word, especially in this atmosphere, and no one knows if there would or would not be an indictment, no matter how strong investigators feel their evidence is,” he said.
But despite his apology, Baier stood by his sources.
“All of us who’ve been working this story at Fox have now circled back with our sources, more than six of them now with specific knowledge of the Clinton investigations,” Baier said. “They confirmed that there is an active investigation into the Clinton Foundation that has been going on for more than a year. It is continuing, and for those investigators working it, it is a priority.”
Baier first reported about the ongoing probe on his show Wednesday and then on another Fox News show shortly after, according to CBS. Since then, several news outlets, like ABC News and NBC News, have disputed his original report and said it’s not true.