The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has determined that a new batch of emails apparently related to Hillary Clinton’s private email server “have not changed our conclusion” that she committed no criminal wrongdoing, the agency’s Director, James Comey, told congressional leaders in a letter yesterday.
As
campaigning continued ahead of tomorrow’s presidential election, a
Clinton spokeswoman said the candidate was “glad this matter is
resolved.”
On October
28, only 11 days before the presidential election, Comey sent those
leaders a letter informing them that agents had discovered emails “that
appear pertinent” to the bureau’s months-long investigation into
Clinton’s use of a private server while she was secretary of state.
The move, so close to an election, proved tremendously controversial.
In July,
Comey had announced that Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless”
but that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring a case against them.
Writing to
Congress yesterday, according to the London-Based Guardian Newspaper,
Comey said: “Since my letter, the FBI investigative team has been
working around the clock to process and review a large volume of emails
from a device obtained in connection with an unrelated criminal
investigation.
“During that
process, we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from
Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State.”
He
concluded: “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions
that we expressed in July with respect to secretary Clinton.
“I am
grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary
amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.”
Clinton was
aboard her campaign plane when the news broke, as was the case with
Comey’s initial letter nine days ago. Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman
for the campaign, made a brief statement to journalists on the plane.
“Comey has confirmed the conclusions that he released in July,” she said. “We’re glad this matter is resolved.”
Aides could
be seen huddling toward the front of the plane and reading from an iPad
as reports of Comey’s letter came through. Palmieri was spotted entering
Clinton’s cabin at very front, shielded by a curtain, moments before
she spoke to the press.
The new
emails were discovered on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, a former
congressman and New York mayoral candidate who is the estranged husband
of Huma Abedin, a close aide to Clinton.
Weiner is under investigation for allegedly exchanging sexually explicit messages with a minor.
Hillary Clinton retains edge over Donald Trump in election’s final sprint
Comey’s
first letter, sent so soon before the presidential election between
Clinton and the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, surprised both
campaigns and cast the FBI into the middle of an acrimonious and
volatile race.
Senior
Democrats accused Comey of political meddling, Clinton said she found
the letter “deeply troubling”, and Trump gleefully predicted the emails
would reveal a corruption scandal “bigger than Watergate.”
In the
fallout from his letter, Department of Justice officials expressed
surprise that Comey would break with decades of policy about
investigations and elections.
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