WASHINGTON — President Obama vowed in an interview broadcast Sunday that his administration would not interfere with the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.

“I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI — not just in this case, but in any case. Full stop. Period.’’ Obama said on “Fox News Sunday.’’

Obama said he doesn’t talk to Attorney General Loretta Lynch or to the FBI about pending investigations. “That is, institutionally, how we have always operated,’’ he said.

In his first interview with the network as president, Obama also said that while Clinton had been careless in managing her e-mails as secretary of state, she would never intentionally do anything to endanger the country.

In October, Obama drew criticism from some in the Justice Department after he said during a “60 Minutes’’ interview that Clinton’s use of the personal e-mail server did not pose a national security problem.

Some FBI officials said the president sounded like he was prejudging the outcome of their investigation.

During the Fox News interview, the president appeared to be mindful of that concern, saying, “I’ve got to be careful because, as you know, there have been investigations, there are hearings, Congress is looking at this.’’

But he went on to offer what could become one of Clinton’s central defenses against prosecution: “Here’s what I know — Hillary Clinton was an outstanding secretary of state. She would never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy.’’

Investigators for the FBI and congressional committees are examining the e-mails that Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, sent and received during her four years as secretary of state.

The State Department has identified more than 2,000 e-mails that contained material that is now deemed as “classified,’’ including nearly two dozen with “top secret’’ information. None of the e-mails were marked as such when Clinton received them.

Obama said he still believed that Clinton “has not jeopardized America’s national security,’’ and he suggested that government agencies sometimes placed classified designations on information that was already broadly available to the public.

“There’s classified, and then there’s classified,’’ the president said. “There’s stuff that is really top-secret top-secret, and there’s stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of state that you might not want on the transom, or going out over the wire, but is basically stuff that you could get in open-source.’’

Federal law enforcement officials have said that the FBI investigation into Clinton’s e-mail server could conclude by next month, and that investigators could soon seek to interview her or her closest aides.

The FBI is investigating whether sensitive information that flowed through Clinton’s e-mail server was mishandled. The inspectors general for the State Department and US intelligence agencies are separately investigating whether rules or laws were broken.

The interview was taped Friday during Obama’s visit to the University of Chicago School of Law, where he taught.

The president touched on several other issues during the interview, including the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Obama said he will stick with him through the end of his term.

Obama is pressing the Senate to hold a hearing on Garland, who would fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Antonin Scalia’s death in February.

Top Republicans, including majority leader Mitch McConnell, have said they don’t plan to hold a hearing with the nominee. An increasing number of Republican lawmakers have agreed to meet privately with him.

‘‘What I think we can’t have, is a situation in which the Republican Senate simply says, ‘Because it’s a Democratic president, we are not going to do our job, have hearings, and have a vote,’ ’’ he said.

“Things will evolve as people get familiar with Judge Garland’s record,’’ Obama added. “As it becomes apparent that the overwhelming majority of the American people think that the president nominates somebody to the Supreme Court, and the Senate should now do its constitutional job and give him a hearing.’’

As he did in a speech on April 7, Obama said Republicans’ refusal to consider Garland on the grounds that Obama’s term will soon end risked setting a dangerous precedent.

An increasing number of Republican senators have agreed to meet privately with Garland, including some who face reelection fights this year.