Updated: 22:10
WITH JUST 11 days to go until America votes, Hillary Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump has seized triumphantly on news that the FBI is investigating a newly discovered batch of emails linked to its inquiry into her use of a private email server.
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Trump declared his Democratic opponent unfit for office as a jubilant crowd chanted: “Lock her up!”
Clinton was on a flight when the news broke and made no mention of the FBI probe – which had been declared complete three months earlier – in her own campaign speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
FBI director James Comey dropped the bombshell in a letter to congressional committees investigating allegations that Clinton put US secrets at risk during her time as secretary of state.
According to the New York Times, the newly discovered mails emerged after agents seized electronic devices belonging to Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, Anthony Weiner.
Weiner – a Democratic politician whose bid to become mayor of New York foundered when he was exposed for sending explicit online messages – is under FBI investigation over allegations that he sent sexual messages to a 15-year-old girl.
Classified information
In July, Comey told lawmakers the FBI probe into Clinton’s unusual decision to use a private server instead of a government email account while in office had concluded without finding wrongdoing.
But, writing today to “supplement” this decision, he said that “in connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation”.
The FBI will thus take “appropriate investigative steps” to decide whether a new batch of mails contains classified information “as well as to assess their importance to the investigation”.
Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta responded furiously to Comey’s letter, demanding that he provide more information to allow voters to judge for themselves.
“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election,” he declared, accusing Trump’s camp of “browbeating” FBI investigators.
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.
Officials at President Barack Obama’s White House said they had learned of Comey’s letter and the issues it raises in news reports.
“I don’t think anything has surfaced to change the president’s opinions and views,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.
Meanwhile, the 70-year-old Trump, trailing in opinion polls both nationally and in the key swing states he must win to secure the White House, seized triumphantly on the news.
“We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” he told cheering crowds at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“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,” he added.
The news took the shine off what should have been a good day for Clinton, with Obama’s Democratic administration announcing stronger than expected economic growth numbers.
Close-fought states
While the 69-year-old former first lady holds an overall poll lead and remains on course to become America’s first female president, a handful of states – including Iowa – could be close-fought.
Both candidates were to be in the battleground of Iowa within hours of each other as they vie to drum up support across the rolling plains of the Midwest.
From Cedar Rapids, Clinton was to head to the state capital Des Moines to rally voters.
Trump kicked off the day in New Hampshire, jetting to Maine and was to wrap up with a rally for 5,000 people in an open-air amphitheater in Cedar Rapids.
While Trump draws the biggest crowds, he is failing to pull in donations to match. Contributions to his campaign slumped in October.
Both camps filed campaign accounts yesterday for the period leading up to 19 October, confirming the Democrats’ overpowering lead in the money game.
No charges
In July of this year, the FBI had recommended no charges should be brought over the Clinton emails.
Clinton came under fire after it emerged she used her family’s private email server for official communications when she was Secretary of State. Some people have argued that her actions violated state department protocols and federal laws.
Speaking at a rally in New Hampshire, Trump said: “the FBI I think they’re going to right the ship, folks”.
And they’re going to save their great reputation by doing so.
It’s been a big day. I won my first primary in New Hampshire and the news this morning is bigger than Watergate in my opinion. Hillary bleached and deleted 33,000 emails after receiving a subpoena.
She gets the subpoena and bleaches and deletes 33,000 emails.
She lied to Congress, she lied to the FBI and she made 13 phones disappear, some with a hammer.
With AFP
Initially published 18.28
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