WASHINGTON — Clinton campaign manager John Podesta called it “extraordinary” that the FBI would announce a new review of emails tied to Hillary Clinton “just 11 days out from a presidential election,” and called on FBI Director James Comey to publicly elaborate on his letter sent to Congress.
Comey advised eight GOP committee chairmen — Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Chairman John Culberson (R-Texas) — in a letter today that he wanted to “supplement my previous testimony” on Clinton’s personal email server.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote. “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.”
“Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.”
The emails in question reportedly were recovered from electronic devices belonging to Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner during the FBI’s probe of the former congressman sexting a 15-year-old. CNN reported that the new emails were not written by Clinton.
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta lashed out in a statement that “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,” Podesta said. “FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen.”
Trump said today that the FBI was “reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America.”
“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,” Trump said. “It is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.”
Podesta noted that “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,” he said, emphasizing that Comey “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,” he added.
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