Hilary Clinton has charged that a probe of her emails, amid allegations she used a private email account to conduct government business and sent messages containing classified information, was politically motivated.
She was responding to an article in The New York Times in which the newspaper reported that the Justice Department was launching an investigation of Clinton over the matter.
The Times subsequently published a correction, explaining, "the referral addressed the potential compromise of classified information in connection with that personal email account. It did not specifically request an investigation into Mrs. Clinton."
Clinton, preferring to remain focused on the issues she has made the centerpiece of her presidential campaign, cited "a lot of inaccuracies" in news stories about her personal email account.
"Maybe the heat is getting to everybody," she said during a campaign appearance at New York University.
"We are all accountable to the American people to get the facts right, and I will do my part," she added. "But I'm also going to stay focused on the issues, particularly the big issues, that really matter to American families."
In a letter to Congress, government investigators say they'd discovered four emails on the personal email account in question that contained what they described as classified information.
Those emails should have been noted as classified and should have been sent over a secure government email server rather than a person, public account set up by Clinton in her home, they said.
In a response on Twitter, Clinton's campaign released a statement: "Any released emails deemed classified by the administration have been done so after the fact, and not at the time they were transmitted," it said.
When the matter was referred to the FBI, which investigates crimes involving classified information, the Justice Department originally referred to it as a "criminal referral" but has since dropped the word "criminal" in its statements about the matter.
Clinton has faced sharp criticism since her use of a private account for government communications was revealed in March, along with a decline in her favorability rating in polls, which still show her as the leading Democratic contender in the presidential race.
Her campaign was quick to try and push back against the Times story Friday.
"It is now more clear than ever that the New York Times report claiming there is a criminal inquiry sought in Hillary Clinton's use of email is false," said Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill in a statement. "This incident shows the danger of relying on reckless, inaccurate leaks from partisan sources."
