Second State Department aide denies pushing for editing of Iran video
A second State Department employee has denied pushing for the intentional editing of video from a 2013 department briefing dealing with the Iran nuclear agreement.
{mosads}Marie Harf, a top aide to Secretary of State John Kerry who was the department’s deputy spokeswoman at the time, joined former State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki in denying involvement.
“As Jen tweeted yesterday, I also had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of this editing,” Harf told the Washington Examiner for a report published Thursday. “I have no idea who asked for the editing of the tape.”
The remarks from Harf, who now serves as Kerry’s senior adviser for strategist communications, echo those tweeted by Psaki, who is now the White House communications director.
I had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of any form of editing or cutting my briefing transcript on any subject while @StateDept
— Jen Psaki (@Psaki44) June 1, 2016
Harf served as Psaki’s deputy when both were at the State Department.
The State Department’s current spokesman, John Kirby, admitted Wednesday that several minutes of the 2013 press briefing had been intentionally removed from a department video posted to YouTube. State previously attributed the missing video to a “glitch.”
Kirby, who joined the department from the Pentagon in 2015, said the request to edit the tape came from the department’s Public Affairs Bureau, but the person who fielded the request couldn’t remember who asked for the edit.
“The call that came into her was actually a call from someone else passing on a request from another official,” Kirby said Thursday morning on “Fox and Friends.”
The deleted segment included a suggestion from Psaki that the negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal began earlier than previously disclosed.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
More National Security News
Log Reg
NOW PLAYING
