UPDATE: Clinton Email Probe Reveals No New Evidence of Wrongdoing
On Sunday night, FBI Director James Comey released a letter to lawmakers that the FBI had reached the same conclusion regarding Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server: that no new evidence of mishandling classified information was found and that the FBI does not recommend charges against Clinton.
Last week, the FBI reviewed around 650,000 emails found on a laptop shared by Huma Abedin, a top Clinton staffer, and her husband former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is being investigated by the FBI on a separate issue regarding sexting a young girl. When the emails were found by FBI agents, Comey alerted members of Congress, whom he had testified in front of this summer, that the FBI would be re-opening the case against Clinton.
Many on both the left and right have criticized Comey for alerting the American public so close to an election and appearing to use the FBI to influence the outcome. Clinton has lost her double digit lead over Trump, which could due to this announcement, or could be attributed to the normal tightening of the race that occurs around Election Day. However, many have questioned why the FBI has been so open about this case as opposed to others, such as whether or not the Russian government is attempting to influence the election outcome.
The Trump campaign is now pushing back against the FBI’s announcement, claiming that the FBI could not have reviewed so many emails in such a short amount of time. Since the Trump campaign regularly rejects facts, however, it is safe to say that this is a ridiculous notion, since the FBI likely has employed software to review the emails for classified information.
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