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THE FBI HAS obtained a warrant to begin reviewing newly discovered emails that may be relevant to the Hillary Clinton email server investigation, a law enforcement official has told The Associated Press.
FBI investigators want to review emails of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were found on a device seized during an unrelated sexting investigation of Anthony Weiner, a former New York congressman and Abedin’s estranged husband.
The official, who has knowledge of the examination, would not say when investigators might complete the review of Abedin’s emails but said yesterday they would move expeditiously.
The Clinton email inquiry, which closed without charges in July, resurfaced on Friday when FBI Director James Comey alerted members of Congress to the existence of emails that he said could be pertinent to that investigation.
The FBI wants to review the emails to see if they contain classified information and were handled properly, the focus of the earlier Clinton inquiry.
Another law enforcement official yesterday said FBI investigators in the Weiner sexting probe knew for weeks about the existence of the emails potentially related to the probe of Clinton’s server.
A third law enforcement official also said the FBI was aware for a period of time about the emails before Comey was briefed, but wasn’t more specific.
In his letter that roiled the White House race, Comey said he’d been briefed on Thursday about the Abedin emails and had agreed that investigators should take steps to review them.
It was not immediately clear yesterday what steps investigators took once the emails were first found to fully advise FBI leaders that additional and potentially relevant messages had been discovered.
The officials were not authorised to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Timing
The timing of Comey’s letter less than two weeks before Election Day drew criticism from Democrats and some Republicans who cast it as unprecedented and as potentially tipping the scales in the presidential race in favor of Republican Donald Trump.
Energised by the news, the GOP presidential nominee has rallied his supporters, calling the latest developments worse than Watergate and arguing that his candidacy has the momentum in the final days of the race.
“We never thought we were going to say ‘thank you’ to Anthony Weiner,” Trump said in Nevada.
Trump also highlighted reports that the Justice Department had discouraged the FBI from alerting Congress to the unexpected discovery of the emails, and said the department is trying “so hard” to protect Clinton.
Comey told FBI colleagues in a memo Friday that he was aware the letter to Congress was at risk of being misunderstood, but he said he felt obligated to notify lawmakers about the new emails after having told them that the matter was closed.
Dozens of former federal prosecutors, including former Attorney General Eric Holder, have signed a letter critical of Comey’s decision. And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wrote to Comey saying the action may have violated the law.
Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State has dogged her campaign since early last year. In July, Comey recommended against criminal prosecution after a months-long investigation, but rebuked Clinton and her aides for being careless with classified material.
Justice Department officials who were advised of the FBI’s intention to notify Congress about the discovery expressed concern that the action would be inconsistent with department protocols designed to avoid the appearance of interference in an election.
Comey acted independently when he sent several members of Congress a letter about the emails on Friday, said one of the officials.
Computer
It was not immediately clear what the Abedin emails were about or what significance, if any, they carried to the Clinton email server investigation.
A person familiar with the investigation, who lacked authority to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity, said the device that appears to be at the centre of the new review was a computer that belonged only to Weiner and was not one he shared with Abedin.
As a result, it was not a device searched for work-related emails at the time of the initial investigation. The person said it is “news to (Abedin)” that her emails would be on a computer belonging to her husband.
Abedin told lawyers in June in a deposition that, like millions of internet users who don’t manage their inboxes, she never deleted old emails on her devices, either at work with Clinton or at home with Weiner.
“I didn’t have a practice of managing my mailbox other than leaving what was in there sitting in there,” Abedin said.
They all stayed in whatever device I was using at the time or whatever desktop I was on at the time.
In February 2013, Abedin signed a routine State Department document under penalty of perjury in which she promised to “turn over all classified or administratively controlled documents and materials” before she left her government job, and promised that she was not retaining copies, “including any diaries, memorandums of conversation or other documents of a personal nature”.
Abedin and Weiner separated this year after Weiner was caught in 2011, 2013 and again this year sending numerous women sexually explicit text messages and photographs of himself undressed.
Federal authorities in New York and North Carolina are investigating online communications between Weiner and a 15-year-old girl.
Wooohooooo. I’m trying to get the cash together to service my 03 car so it can pass the NCT.
Put it in without going to a mechanic, it could pass. Even if it fails, you’ll have a sheet of issues to resolve. Much more cost effective this way.
Thanks for the tip :-)
I never understand why you would buy a new car
Luxury? Knowing you’re the only person who has ever owned it and that nothing will be wrong?
So buy it once and then you’ll understand.
Thanks for clearing that up
I wonder how many people drove to anti water charges demos in a new car, with 95,000 being sold it must be a few hundred, or even a few thousand. A mid sized family car starts at €30,000, and a lot more if you go for a decent specification, that would buy a lifetime of water for a family.
Can we have a free cars demo next?
Donaill, “……and that nothing will be wrong…….”. What a lovely idea. That and the Tooth Fairy. Presumably you are a car dealer. Better wait a year and have the initial warranty stuff sorted, as well as benefitting from the depreciation.
However, someone had better keep on buying new or the nearly-new market will dry up.
Go to England and get a higher spec for cheaper.
Great news. I’ll be looking to buy one of these cars for a fraction of the current price in about three years time!
More proof for the naysayers that FG are turning this country around. What will the shinnerbots say now?
Sure It’s all the Fg cronies packed on the boards of quangos that’s buying them
Surely Ed, you can come up with a better one than that.
Well said James. Its easy to be against everything. Its a typical SF/IRA response to jump on the populist bandwagon. People like ed have no concept of the real world. Next they will be blaming FG for the bad weather.
In fairness things are improving around the country.
If they were bad we would blame the government.
So in turn if it gets better they should get some credit.
And NO I’m not a FG or FF voter!
Nope fraid not. no joking on this site yesterday then
cant understand why everybody doesnt buy a new car sure you could get a car worth 10,000 for only 20,000 when you add on the vat, excise duty and vrt.
This sounds like a feel good loaded article! Maybe there isn’t enough €500 cars to go around now!
Commercial vehicles sales, up good to hear.
Irish water fleet
Recession my arse…
We should Put up road tax instead of water charges
Yea cause it worked really well the last time…..not!
people can afford 30-40K new audi… they can afford to pay bit more road tax
Tax goes on engine size and emissions.
So your argument is a little on the stupid side
Thomas, are you taking the piss? 5% of your already overpriced motor tax currently goes to cover water charges.
There really is no point working in this country anymore.
bring in the luxury car tax instead of water charges
Modern expensive cars so technically advanced and have such low emissions now that the emissions based tax system doesn’t work not fair. So it should be based more on co2 emission based on manufacture. Larger more elaborate car’s are more polluting to manufacture so luxury car tax system is only fair
There’s already very heavy taxes on new cars Thomas.
The most polluting car to manufacture is a Nissan Leaf electric car because mining the hundreds of tons of material from which the hundreds of kilos of toxic heavy metals contained in the batteries is a very dirty polluting process. And then the poisonous batteries have to be disposed of when the electric car is scrapped.
in fairness motor tax is just another unfair tax on the poor. if you cant afford a new car then you have to pay exorbitant tax based on the size of your engine
Give the poor free cars I say Gerry! Anything else?
no f.g reg just have the same emmissions based tax on all cars regardless of age. its just about fairness, wouldn’t expect a f.g apologist to understand that though.
will never buy a new car, hope all those idiots enjoyed paying VRT on their new motors
have your say