FBI reopens investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails
Hillary Clinton may have thought the dust had settled and she was on the home straight to defeating Trump, but the ugly matter of her emails has reared its head again. Today the FBI announces that it is reopening its probe of the presidential candidate, citing the discovery of further emails "that appear pertinent to the investigation".
The emails in question were discovered during an unrelated investigation. No details of what this investigation relates to have been revealed, but the announcement by the FBI comes as a blow to Clinton so late in the election campaign.
Accusations leveled at Clinton that she used a personal email server to handle classified information have dogged her campaign. Recent allegations about Donald Trump, as well as the closure of the initial Clinton investigation, took the heat off the Democratic candidate for a while, but the thumbscrews are about to be applied once again.
In a letter to congressional committee chairs, FBI director James Comey writes:
In previous congressional testimony, I referred to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton's personal email server. Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony.
In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.
Donald Trump jumped on the news, proudly telling crowds gathered to hear him speak that the FBI is "reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America".
House speaker Paul Ryan issued the following statement:
Yet again, Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame. She was entrusted with some of our nation’s most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information. This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators. I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.
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