The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reviewing another slew of emails related to Hillary Clinton’s private server — apparently thanks to Anthony Weiner.
FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to congressional leaders Oct. 28 saying that his agency recently discovered additional emails that are pertinent to the previously concluded investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information using a private server from her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Comey said these new emails were found in “connection with an unrelated case.”
Later in the day, the New York Times and the Associated Press reported that the additional emails were discovered on former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s electronic devices during the FBI’s investigation of his sexting habits. According to the Times, the FBI is looking at inappropriate text messages Weiner allegedly sent to a 15-year-old girl.
Weiner’s estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is a longtime top aide to Clinton. Abedin announced earlier this year that she would divorce Weiner, whose political career has been rocked by multiple sexting scandals.
Friday evening, Clinton called for the Comey and the FBI to release the “full and complete facts” from the probe.
But her competitor for the White House, Republican candidate Donald Trump, capitalized on the FBI’s announcement by releasing a statement that accuses Clinton of “criminal and illegal conduct.”
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. 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 DOJ are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understand. It is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted that Americans were already aware of Clinton’s “lifelong pattern of corruption” and that elected officials should be held accountable regardless of how high they rise in politics.
Elected officials, no matter how high their position, should be held accountable for criminal conduct. The rule of law matters. https://t.co/ftAB7aJ50l
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 28, 2016
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, also chimed in on Weiner’s surprising role in the controversy.
Who would have thought a Weiner would be HRC’s undoing?????
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 28, 2016
Weiner did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News.
John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s campaign, released a statement calling for the FBI to release more details about its announcement:
“Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call. In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen. 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 have come 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.
“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.
“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.”
