Entering the final days of the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton must have been sure she had deleted away her email controversy from voters’ minds and was sailing toward a landslide win.

Not so fast Hillary! Out of nowhere, like a bomb exploding on her best laid plans, the FBI reopened its investigation into her covert use of a private server while Secretary of State.

The news took everyone in Washington by surprise, even the doyenne of the Democratic Party, Clinton herself.

FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress this past Friday, indicating the FBI had discovered new emails related to Clinton’s time as Secretary of State.

About 1,000 emails were discovered while the FBI was digging around a laptop of former Rep. Anthony Weiner for its investigation into him allegedly sexting with a minor.

The reason the new emails “appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” as Comey wrote to Congress, is that Huma Abedin, Clinton campaign senior aide and wife of Weiner, also used the laptop.

We don’t know what was there that prompted Comey to decide to reopen an investigation which he closed in July.

Back in July, Comey concluded no charges would be filed against Clinton though she had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information. The FBI hasn’t determined if some or all of the emails are duplicates of emails the agency has already reviewed. But clearly Comey wanted to remove any questions that he was engaging in a cover-up for Clinton, which many Republicans accused him of in July.

“Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record,” Comey wrote in a memo to FBI employees.

Indignant, strident and simmering as ever, Clinton gave a rare press conference on the FBI’s new probe.

“We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national elections of our lifetime. Voting is already underway in our country. So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” she said.

“I’m confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July. Therefore, it’s imperative the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay,” she added.

Frankly, the FBI doesn’t owe Clinton anything. In fact the reverse is true. Clinton owes the American people a truthful, plausible explanation about her actions.

As the Wall Street Journal noted, in her July interview with the FBI in which she wasn’t put under oath, Clinton told agents 27 times that she “could not recall” or did not remember specifically” details around her use of a private server while Secretary of State.

Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta expressed outrage at Comey for doing “something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.” Podesta wasn’t outraged when the mainstream liberal media unleashed the 2005 video of Donald Trump engaging in lewd talk about women just weeks before the election. Neither did the avalanche of women, who surfaced less than two weeks before the election, accusing Trump of sexual harassment, perturb Podesta.

It’s an election buddy, where big things happen and people play for keeps. Podesta seems appalled that the chickens may have come home to roost for the Clintons. The email controversy may be the thing that finally brings down Clinton and stops her from making history. But if she’s elected, I believe America will have to get used to scandals being a daily part of her presidency.

— Wright is author of the book Con Job: How Democrats Gave Us Crime, Sanctuary Cities, Abortion Profiteering, and Racial Division</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is investigating whether there is classified information in new emails uncovered during the sexting investigation of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of one of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides.

FBI Director James Comey told Congress in a letter that the emails prompted investigators to take another look at whether classified information had been mishandled, which had been the focus of its recently closed, criminal probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server. Comey couldn’t guarantee that the latest investigation would be finished before Election Day.

Comey did not provide details about the emails, but a U.S. official told The Associated Press that the emails emerged through the FBI’s separate sexting probe of Weiner, who is separated from Clinton confidant Huma Abedin. She served as deputy chief of staff at the State Department and is still a key player in Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Federal authorities in New York and North Carolina are investigating online communications between Weiner and a 15-year-old girl. The U.S. official was familiar with the investigation but was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The disclosure came less than two weeks before the presidential election and thrust a political liability for Clinton back into the headlines that her campaign thought had been resolved and had begun to recede from the minds of voters. The FBI said in July its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server was finished.

John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, said Comey should immediately provide more information to voters.

“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election,” Podesta said in a statement. “The director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining.”

Comey stressed in his letter that the FBI could not yet assess “whether or not this material may be significant,” or how long it might take to run down the new investigative leads.

“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote. “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.”

It was unclear what the emails contained, who sent them, or what connection they might have to the yearlong investigation the FBI closed in July without recommending criminal charges. The FBI probe focused on whether Clinton sent or received classified information using a server in the basement of her New York home, which was not authorized to handle such messages. Abedin was interviewed by the FBI as part of its investigation.

Comey said in July that his agents didn’t find evidence to support a criminal prosecution or direct evidence that Clinton’s private server was hacked.

Podesta said he was confident the new information will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.

Comey, who has talked often about the FBI’s need to be accountable to the public, promised extraordinary transparency about the investigation and during intervening months has authorized the release of investigative files from the case, which are normally kept confidential.

That stance also left Comey, a career federal prosecutor who has served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, open to criticism from leaders in both parties that he was trying to influence the outcome of the presidential race.

Clinton campaign supporters were already suggesting the FBI director was putting a thumb on the scale. Had he waited until after Nov. 8 to announce the discovery of the new emails, however, Comey would surely have faced criticism for sitting on major news until after the new president had been selected.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the department learned about the FBI letter from news reports and did not get any notification from the FBI. Toner pledged the department would “cooperate to the full extent that we can.”

Republicans immediately pounced on the news, hoping to shake up a presidential race where most polls appear to show Republican nominee Donald Trump lagging well behind Clinton.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said 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,” Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement. “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.”

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the FBI’s decision reinforces the committee’s view that the more that is learned about the server, “the clearer it becomes that she and her associates committed wrongdoing and jeopardized national security.”

Speaking to cheering supporters at a rally in New Hampshire, Trump used Comey’s new letter to attack Clinton.

“We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” said Trump, who has pledged to “lock up” his political rival if elected. “Perhaps finally justice will be done.”

Follow AP reporters Michael Biesecker at http://Twitter.com/mbieseck and Eric Tucker at http://twitter.com/etuckerAP</s>Hillary Clinton’s campaign lashed out at the FBI on Saturday, saying there was no indication that a cache of recently discovered emails under review by the agency was connected to the Democratic nominee. Barnstorming the West, Republican rival Donald Trump pounced on the reignited email controversy.

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told reporters FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress about the new emails was “long on innuendo” and “short on facts.”

“There’s no evidence of wrongdoing,” he said. “No charge of wrongdoing. No indication this is even about Hillary.”

But on that latter point, Comey in fact said the new trove was “pertinent” to the Clinton email investigation, without explaining how.

A government official told The Associated Press on Saturday that the Justice Department had advised the FBI against telling Congress about the new developments in the Clinton investigation because of the potential fallout so close to the election. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and discussed it on condition of anonymity.

Justice officials concluded the letter would be inconsistent with department policy that directs against investigative actions that could be seen as affecting an election or helping a particular candidate, the official said.

Landing with a thud, the email issue again threatened to undermine an advantage built by Clinton, the Democratic nominee, over Trump and raised the possibility that the Republican might be able to seize momentum during the final days before the Nov. 8 election.

Trump told a crowd in Golden, Colorado, on Saturday that the FBI’s review of Clinton email practices raises “everybody’s deepest hope that justice, as last, can be properly delivered.” His crowd cheered Clinton’s email woes, which Trump has taken to calling the biggest political scandal since Watergate.

Trump also had battleground Arizona on his plate Saturday. Early voting has been underway for weeks and Clinton, who was campaigning Saturday in Florida, has led in preference polls, both nationally and in key swing states.

The FBI is looking into whether there was classified information on a device belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced ex-congressman who is separated from longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Comey, in his letter to Congress on Friday, said the FBI had recently come upon new emails while pursuing an unrelated case and was reviewing whether they were classified.

The announcement raised more questions than answers and generated criticism that Comey was injecting a significant development too close to an election. Yet the FBI director also faced the prospect of intense scrutiny if voters learned that he had been sitting on a major development until after the election.

Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook spoke to reporters in a conference call, following Clinton’s hastily arranged news conference on Friday night in a high school choir room in Des Moines, Iowa. In it, she said “the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately. The director himself has said he doesn’t know whether the emails referenced in his letter are significant or not.”

But long-term, the development all but ensured that, even should Clinton win the White House, she and several of her closest aides would celebrate a victory under a cloud of investigation.</s>WASHINGTON: Just as Hillary Clinton appeared to be cruising to Election Day with the wind at her back, the FBI rattled the presidential race Friday by announcing it is again probing emails that might be related to her private server, rekindling a politically damaging controversy for Clinton and reinvigorating Republicans scrambling to hold on to congressional seats.

The surprise word from FBI Director James Comey came after his agency discovered new communications on a computer jointly used by close Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, a former New York congressman, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. Investigators came across the emails while investigating whether Weiner violated federal law when exchanging sexually explicit texts with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, the official said.

Comey wrote in a letter to Congress that the newly discovered messages could be relevant to questions of whether Clinton and her aides mishandled classified information while she was secretary of state.

The emails were not to or from Clinton, and contained information that appeared to be more of what agents had already uncovered, the official said, but in an abundance of caution, they felt they needed to further scrutinize them.

Because Comey had told Congress that the FBI had finished investigating Clinton’s server, he felt he needed to let lawmakers know that agents were looking into the case again in light of the recent discovery, the official said.

News of Comey’s letter sent the stock market falling and Republican candidates rewriting their stump speeches. The Clinton campaign was caught off guard, as the letter emerged while the candidate and her entourage, including Abedin, were flying on a campaign plane with no working Wi-Fi en route to a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Speaking briefly to reporters after an event in Des Moines, Clinton called on Comey to release more information. She said neither she nor her campaign staff was contacted by the FBI and noted twice that the bureau communicated only with Republican congressional investigators.

“The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” she said.

Clinton also expressed confidence that whatever might be in the newly discovered emails “will not change the conclusion” Comey reached in July when he announced he would not recommend criminal charges.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, excoriated Comey’s timing.

“The FBI has a history of extreme caution near Election Day so as not to influence the results,” she said in a statement. “Today’s break from that tradition is appalling.”

Democrats were not alone in demanding Comey disclose more information or questioning such a disclosure so close to the election.

“The letter from Director Comey was unsolicited and, quite honestly, surprising,” said a statement from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a Republican. “But it’s left a lot more questions than answers for both the FBI and Secretary Clinton. Congress and the public deserve more context to properly assess what evidence the FBI has discovered and what it plans to do with it.”

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas asked in a tweet: “Why is FBI doing this just 11 days before the election?”

Comey had written in his letter that he could not assess whether the new messages contained “significant” material or “how long it will take us to complete this additional work.” He wrote that the FBI would “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.”</s>Can we possibly be surprised by any new revelation in this bizarre US presidential election? Yes we can.

The Friday afternoon bombshell that the FBI was looking at newly discovered emails in connection with Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email server as US secretary of state – and that the new material arose in a separate investigation into “sexting” former congressman Anthony Weiner – shook the political landscape.

It left many wondering whether this was the “October surprise” people were expecting.

Clinton’s plane was mid-flight to a get-out-the-vote rally in Iowa when news of FBI director James Comey’s letter to Republican congressmen broke, telling them that the bureau had found emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the closed investigation into whether she mishandled classified information by email.

The fact that he was unable to say whether the material was significant or how long the investigation would take only magnified the repercussions of the news that the FBI was in effect reopening a year-long investigation concluded in July with less than two weeks before Election Day.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump , clearly relishing the disclosure, declared the news in his characteristic hyperbole as “bigger than Watergate” in front of supporters in New Hampshire

He appeared elated, vindicated over his months-long drumbeat of criticism of the FBI’s July conclusions.

Other Republicans piled on. House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan said Mrs Clinton has “nobody but herself to blame” by “carelessly mishandling highly classified information.”

That the wound appears inflicted by someone close to her inner circle is all the more damaging for Mrs Clinton coming from Weiner, the disgraced former New York congressman and estranged husband of her closest aide Huma Abedin.

Abedin has herself been the focus of Republican congressional attention because of the dual role she held as an adviser to Mrs Clinton at the State Department while working privately for Teneo, the New York strategic consultancy company cofounded by Irish public relations executive Declan Kelly and long-time Bill Clinton aide, Doug Band.

She announced her separation from her husband last month after the Daily Mail caught Weiner in another “sexting” episode. Police and the FBI launched an investigation into the tabloid’s report that the 52-year-old former politician sent sexually explicit texts to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.

An electronic device seized during the Weiner investigation has, according to the New York Times, provided the FBI with these new emails, leading Clinton email investigators to “determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation,” said Comey.

The Clinton campaign already had to deal with the embarrassment that was the car-crash fly-on-the-wall documentary into Weiner’s self-combusted New York mayoral campaign.

Now it appears Weiner’s “sexting” has thrown up a much more serious problem as the presidential race enters the closing straight.

John Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman dealing with the fallout from his own (Russian-hacked) email problems, reacted furiously to the FBI’s end-of-week letter to Congress.

“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election,” he said, confident that the FBI would not change its July conclusion that Clinton’s mishandling of classified government information on her personal email was “extremely careless” but not criminal.

That this should hang over a presidential candidate so close to an election is just that: extraordinary.</s>WASHINGTON: Just as Hillary Clinton appeared to be cruising to Election Day with the wind at her back, the FBI rattled the presidential race Friday by announcing it is again probing emails that might be related to her private server, rekindling a politically damaging controversy for Clinton and reinvigorating Republicans scrambling to hold on to congressional seats.

The surprise word from FBI Director James Comey came after his agency discovered new communications on a computer jointly used by close Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, a former New York congressman, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. Investigators came across the emails while investigating whether Weiner violated federal law when exchanging sexually explicit texts with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, the official said.

Comey wrote in a letter to Congress that the newly discovered messages could be relevant to questions of whether Clinton and her aides mishandled classified information while she was secretary of state.

The emails were not to or from Clinton, and contained information that appeared to be more of what agents had already uncovered, the official said, but in an abundance of caution, they felt they needed to further scrutinize them.

Because Comey had told Congress that the FBI had finished investigating Clinton’s server, he felt he needed to let lawmakers know that agents were looking into the case again in light of the recent discovery, the official said.

News of Comey’s letter sent the stock market falling and Republican candidates rewriting their stump speeches. The Clinton campaign was caught off guard, as the letter emerged while the candidate and her entourage, including Abedin, were flying on a campaign plane with no working Wi-Fi en route to a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Speaking briefly to reporters after an event in Des Moines, Clinton called on Comey to release more information. She said neither she nor her campaign staff was contacted by the FBI and noted twice that the bureau communicated only with Republican congressional investigators.

“The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” she said.

Clinton also expressed confidence that whatever might be in the newly discovered emails “will not change the conclusion” Comey reached in July when he announced he would not recommend criminal charges.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, excoriated Comey’s timing.

“The FBI has a history of extreme caution near Election Day so as not to influence the results,” she said in a statement. “Today’s break from that tradition is appalling.”

Democrats were not alone in demanding Comey disclose more information or questioning such a disclosure so close to the election.

“The letter from Director Comey was unsolicited and, quite honestly, surprising,” said a statement from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a Republican. “But it’s left a lot more questions than answers for both the FBI and Secretary Clinton. Congress and the public deserve more context to properly assess what evidence the FBI has discovered and what it plans to do with it.”

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas asked in a tweet: “Why is FBI doing this just 11 days before the election?”

Comey had written in his letter that he could not assess whether the new messages contained “significant” material or “how long it will take us to complete this additional work.” He wrote that the FBI would “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.”</s>Hillary Clinton’s ­presidential campaign suffered a ­Halloween horror yesterday when a new opinion poll showed Donald Trump just two points behind her.

Worryingly for Clinton, the poll, carried out for the highly respected Washington Post, was held before the announcement of a new FBI ­investigation into her use of emails.

Trump’s campaign seemed to be all but over after a tape emerged of his obscene remarks about grabbing women “by the p****” and senior Republicans condemned his ­behaviour.
• Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom channel Hillary and Bill Clinton at Kate Hudson's A-list Halloween party

But Trump has slowly regained support and the Washington Post/ABC News poll, carried out between Monday and Thursday, shows 47 per cent of voters backing Clinton and 45 per cent for Trump.

Bookies have also slashed the odds on Trump winning the race to the White House.

Odds on Clinton have increased from 1-9 two weeks ago to 1-3 and Trump down from 11-2 to 5-2.

William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said: “For the past week Trump’s odds have been edging downwards and the recent FBI news has accelerated the process.
• FBI open probe into Hillary Clinton's classified emails again after new messages are found

"No one will touch Clinton, despite odds which just a week ago would have caused a stampede to get on.”

Clinton’s lead could evaporate ­completely following the revelation the FBI have reopened the investigation into her use of a private email server when secretary of state.

In July, officials recommended that no charges be brought against ­Clinton over her use of a private email server for official correspondence.

The FBI spent a year probing claims she may have broken federal laws by transmitting classified ­information over unsecured ­channels.
• Donald Trump's election campaign sinks to new low as he threatens to sue over sexual assault allegations

On Friday, bureau director James Comey said the FBI had found emails “pertinent” to the investigation “in connection with an unrelated case”.

The new emails were found after the FBI seized electronic devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her former husband, ­disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner.

The bureau are probing allegations Weiner sent illicit texts and photos to a 15-year-old girl.

But the FBI have revealed nothing about the emails, including whether any of the messages were sent by or to Clinton.

She has urged the FBI to explain why they are carrying out a new ­investigation.

She said on Friday night: “We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national election of our lifetimes. Voting is already under way in our country. So the American ­people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.

“The director himself has said he doesn’t know whether the emails referenced in his letter are significant or not.”
• Donald Trump has moulded the Republican Party in his own image and like him it is doomed

Trump accused Clinton of ­corruption “on a scale we have never seen before” and described the case as the “biggest political scandal since Watergate”.

But in a boost to Clinton, an ­estimated 19million Americans have already voted in the election, ­accounting for as much as 20 per cent of the electorate.

President Obama is also scheduled to hit the campaign trail hard to ­support her this week.

Clinton’s odds of receiving the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency remained at greater than 95 per cent, according to State of the Nation.

According to the Reuters/Ipsos project, Clinton leads Trump by 15 per cent among early voters.

The project estimated she would win by 320 votes to 218, with 278 votes solidly for the Democrat.

Clinton’s lead among early voters is similar to the lead enjoyed by Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney at the same point of the 2012 presidential race.</s>It looks like there will be yet another chapter in the saga of Hillary Clinton's private email server. The FBI, which has established a pattern of surprising Friday afternoon releases in this high-profile case, has stated that new "investigative steps" are being taken in light of additional emails having surfaced that "appear to be pertinent."

It is tough to say how concerned the Clinton camp should be. At first glance, this announcement could be largely pro forma. New emails that transited or were stored on Mrs. Clinton's server have turned up, and the FBI director has passed this information along to Congress. The investigation was never formally closed , so it hasn't formally reopened either.

Without knowing the content of the emails, any assessments of the damage this will do to Clinton's imminent political prospects -- or whether she faces the renewed specter of legal jeopardy -- are largely guesses.

But initial reports are that the only reason these new emails came to light is the completely separate investigation into Anthony Weiner's illicit online activities. In essence, while investigating Mr. Weiner, the FBI allegedly stumbled across some correspondence involving Huma Abedin, senior aide and close confidante of Hillary Clinton.

If this is true, it could mean that, thanks to Mr. Weiner's well-chronicled indiscretions and possibly illegal Internet proclivities, the FBI may have found a whole new batch of electronic communications to comb for evidence of classified information or corruption.

Was access to Hillary Clinton's time for sale? (Opinion) That Mrs. Abedin's personal computer may have escaped the FBI's particularly gentle dragnet in the Clinton email case would come as little surprise. The bureau has taken a beating in public over what many perceive as special treatment for the former secretary of state and her top aides. From the immunity deals to the tarmac meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton , a clear case can be made that the Department of Justice took a less than adversarial approach for this particular national security investigation. But cover-ups are a complicated business. It is certainly conceivable that an electronic device belonging to Abedin -- and shared with her husband Mr. Weiner -- was overlooked in the effort to scrub what Madame Secretary once dishonestly dismissed as emails about yoga routines and her daughter's wedding . These new emails may be exactly the sort of damning exchanges that critics of Mrs. Clinton claim the whole private server was meant to hide from the official record. There is also the possibility that the emails contain nothing explosive, incriminating or even new. In that case, the FBI may well be offering up its findings in an effort to win back the trust of Republicans in Congress -- and the respect of the American people. A bureau that looks tenacious in its investigatory efforts of Mrs. Clinton is a bureau that appears less partisan, even if it's mostly for show. Regardless of any findings, it would seem improbable that the same DOJ that passed up any charges against Mrs. Clinton or her inner circle this past summer will turn around in the future and consider an indictment against a possible commander-in-chief -- under any circumstances. Join us on Twitter and Facebook All of this makes for a highly fissile political moment. FBI Director James Comey, who has already played far too large a role in the outcome of this election, clearly realizes the importance of the next statements to come out of the FBI. With a presidential election just over a week away, Hillary Clinton's biggest concern will not be the very remote possibility of future criminal charges, but the much likelier chance that a few too many voters in key states will have second thoughts about pulling the lever for a presidential contender still under suspicion of wrongdoing by the FBI.</s>WASHINGTON (JTA) — A renewed investigation into whether Hillary Clinton or her aides mishandled classified information reportedly arose out of the FBI probe of whether Anthony Weiner sexted with an underage girl.

James Comey, the FBI director, on Friday wrote to the chairman of congressional oversight committees that the “FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” into the private server Clinton used when she was secretary of state.

He said the revelation came about because of an “unrelated case” but did not detail it further. The New York Times, followed by other media outlets, quoted sources as saying that the new emails were uncovered in their probe into Weiner, a former congressman who also ran for mayor of New York.

Weiner, who is Jewish and who was close to the right-wing pro-Israel community while in Congress, is married to a top aide to Clinton, Huma Abedin. They separated this summer when it was revealed that his habit of sexting, or exchanging lascivious images and narratives, which drove him out of Congress and then scuttled his bid for mayor, was continuing unabated. It was subsequently alleged that he was in a sexting relationship with a 15-year old girl in North Carolina, which led to the federal investigation.

Comey had previously closed the inquiry into the Democratic presidential nominee’s server, saying she had mishandled information by using a private server – a result of Clinton’s determination to keep some exchanges quiet – but that nothing rose to the level of a criminal complaint.

Donald Trump, Clinton’s Republican rival, seized on the revelation, praising the FBI at a rally, and saying “We must not let #CrookedHillary take her CRIMINAL SCHEME into the Oval Office” on Twitter.

John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign manager, fired out a statement calling on the FBI to reveal more about the emails, saying the campaign was certain there was nothing in the emails that would implicate Clinton.

“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election,” Podesta said. “The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”</s>Attorney General Loretta Lynch attempted to stop FBI Director James Comey from reopening the Hillary Clinton email investigation this week, according to law enforcement officials connected with the case.

Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates were unhappy with the FBI’s decision to notify Congress about their decision to review new Clinton emails, as it would “embarrass” and potentially “harm” the Clinton campaign.

While there was no explicit order not to send the letter, department officials expressed concern that what Comey wanted to do was contrary to how the department does business given how close this was to the election. They added it was contrary to department policies and procedures, one law enforcement source said.

Comey decided to disregard their concerns and sent the letter Friday anyway, shaking the presidential race 11 days before the election and nearly four months after the FBI chief said he wouldn’t recommend criminal charges over the Democratic nominee’s use of the server.

The officials acknowledged there was little Lynch and Yates could do given the fallout over Lynch’s controversial meeting over the summer with former President Bill Clinton.

Lynch and Yates objected after Comey gave advance notice to top officials at the Justice Department before sending the letter to lawmakers, law enforcement officials briefed on the matter said. Justice officials didn’t sign off on Comey’s decision and he didn’t seek their approval, one official said.

Instead, he made an independent decision to go against longstanding Justice Department and FBI practice to not comment publicly about politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of an election, the official said.

Comey later explained his decision to provide Congress with the information in a letter to FBI employees.

“We don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed,” Comey said. “I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.”

Clinton’s campaign and allies quickly decried the decision’s timing, and the candidate herself on Friday forcefully called on the FBI to release the “full and complete facts” about its review.

“Voting is underway, so the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” Clinton said at a brief news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, adding it was “imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay.”

Clinton said she was “confident whatever (the emails) are will not change the conclusion reached in July,” when Comey said he wouldn’t recommend criminal charges in the matter.

Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has spent the past several weeks on defense, seized on the issue.

“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we’ve never seen before,” Trump said at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. “We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.”

He later responded to Clinton’s statement, saying she “tried to politicize the investigation by attacking and falsely accusing the FBI director of only sending the letter to Republicans.”

In a letter to eight congressional committee chairmen Friday, Comey said investigators are examining newly discovered emails that “appear to be pertinent” to the email probe.

“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote the chairmen. “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.”

The newly discovered emails are part of an investigation into Anthony Weiner, according to law enforcement sources. Weiner, the disgraced former congressman, recently separated from top Clinton aide Huma Abedin after a sexting incident.

The FBI and the New York Police Department have opened preliminary investigations of allegations that Weiner, a former New York Democratic congressman, exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a purportedly underage girl.

The emails in question were sent or received by Abedin, according to a law enforcement official. There were a “considerable number” of emails being reviewed from at least one device shared by Abedin and Weiner, the official said. A separate official described it as thousands of messages.

The FBI is looking at whether any of the newly discovered emails will have an impact on the now-closed investigation into Clinton’s server. In his letter, Comey said he was not sure how long the additional review would take and said the FBI “cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant.”

The big question is whether the return of the email storm, which has overshadowed her entire campaign, will have an impact on any remaining undecided voters. Before the latest controversy erupted, Clinton had the advantage in the race for the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency. She is leading Trump by six points in CNN’s Poll of Polls.

Comey is under withering criticism from the Clinton campaign and congressional Democrats for releasing the letter so close to the election. Earlier Friday, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said “it’s extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.”

He followed up on that criticism in a heated conference call with reporters Saturday, saying Comey’s letter was “light on facts, heavy on innuendo, knowing full what Republicans would do with it. It is not up to him who owes the public answers to questions that are now on the table.”

Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said she was “shocked” to read Comey’s letter.

“Director Comey’s announcement played right into the political campaign of Donald Trump,” she said in a statement.

Even Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin urged Comey to provide more information: “In line with your commitment to be transparent with Congress and the public, I respectfully request that the FBI provide as much information as possible about these new developments without harming the integrity of its ongoing investigation,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Comey.

The FBI chief felt he had no choice but to tell Congress now or risk being accused of hiding relevant information before the election, law enforcement officials said in explaining the timing. The letter was “carefully worded,” one of the officials said.

The news united Republicans who have spent the past several weeks grappling with Trump’s controversies. Speaker Paul Ryan jumped on Comey’s announcement to blast Clinton.

Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, tweeted after the news broke, “A great day in our campaign just got even better.”

Ryan said Clinton betrayed Americans’ trust for handling “the nation’s most important secrets.”

“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,” Ryan said in a statement. “I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.”
James Comey informs Congress that "the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation." He says the FBI has not yet assessed the importance or significance of these emails.