FBI reopens Clinton email investigation
This was first published by Talk Media News.
WASHINGTON – FBI Director James Comey informed Congress Friday that the Bureau is again investigating Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server while secretary of state pursuant to the recent discovery of new emails.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote in the letter. “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 unrelated incident has to do with the federal investigation into former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s alleged sexting with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The FBI discovered the Clinton-related emails on Weiner’s electronic device, according to The New York Times. An FBI agent told The Times that Clinton emails “numbered in the thousands.”
Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin was married to Weiner at the time but has since separated.
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said in a statement Friday that the discovery of new emails by the FBI suggests impropriety on behalf of Clinton and her former State Department aides.
“The FBI’s decision to reopen its investigation into Secretary Clinton reinforces what the House Judiciary Committee has been saying for months: the more we learn about Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server, the clearer it becomes that she and her associates committed wrongdoing and jeopardized national security,” Goodlatte said in the statement.
Trump responded with enthusiasm to the breaking news, calling it, “bigger than Watergate.”
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before,” Trump told a New Hampshire audience Friday who shouted “lock her up.”
“We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” Trump said. “I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made.”
Clinton campaign manager John Podesta issued a statement Friday calling on Director Comey to provide more information about the recently discovered emails.
“FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen,” Podesta said in the statement. “Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is “reopening” an investigation but Comey’s words do not match that characterization. Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that came to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant.”
Trump campaign manager KellyAnne Conway responded via Twitter to news that the Clinton email probe was being reopened:
A great day in our campaign just got even better. FBI reviewing new emails in Clinton probe @CNNPolitics https://t.co/WBltG2lAK6
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 28, 2016
President Barack Obama declined to address the breaking news Friday and ignored shouted questions from reporters while walking to Marine One on the White House’s South Lawn.
Obama was en-route to Orlando, Florida, where he will be campaigning for Clinton.
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.