The FBI has reportedly obtained a warrant to dig through
hundreds of thousands of newly-discovered emails allegedly related to a
private server used by Hillary Clinton. It’s unclear if the renewed
probe will achieve any results before US Election Day.
The
search warrant allows the bureau to scour through some 650,000 emails
discovered on a laptop belonging to ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner and
apparently also used by his wife, Clinton’s closest aide Huma Abedin.
The probe is set to check if any of the texts are related to the
reopened investigation of the former secretary of state’s private email
use.
READ MORE: FBI reopens Clinton investigation as new emails found ‒ Comey
The
authorization came two days after FBI Director James Comey finally
revealed the existence of the emails stash which was reportedly
discovered by the agency in early October.
“The process has begun,” a federal law enforcement official
told the New York Times.
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The new emails were discovered as part of a separate ‘sexting’
probe into former Representative Anthony Weiner (D-New York). His
electronic devices were seized during that investigation.
Abedin claims she has no knowledge of any of her emails being on the electronic device belonging to her husband, CBS News has
learned on
Sunday. A source told the network that newly-discovered emails belonged
to Weiner, not his wife, who left her husband earlier this year over
his sexting addiction.
Clinton's longtime aide is allegedly cooperating with the investigation and
“seemed surprised that the emails were there,” according to the CBS source.
On
Friday, FBI Director Comey announced that due to new findings, the
criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server had
been reopened, as he sent a letter notifying Congress of the email
review.
The review, which is likely to take weeks, will seek to
determine whether any of those messages are work-related, and whether
they include either classified information or important new evidence in
the probe aimed to check whether Clinton’s actions undermined US
national security.
The
unexpected announcement came just over a week before Americans head to
the polls to determine the winner in the race for the White House
between Democrat Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Even though some
of those emails passed through Clinton’s private server and could be
duplicates of the information already handled by the FBI as part of the
previous investigation, the probe is unlikely to wrap up before November
8.
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Concerned by the FBI’s move to relaunch the investigation so
close to the election date, US Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on
Sunday sent a letter to the FBI director hinting that Comey had violated
the Hatch Act, which bars the use of an executive branch position to
influence an election.
“Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law,” Reid, a senator from Nevada, said in the letter to Comey.
Clinton
campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook also
questioned the legality of the FBI’s actions. Comey’s letter to Congress
was
“long on innuendo, short on facts,” Podesta told CNN's State of the Union.
“We are calling on Mr. Comey to come forward and explain what’s at issue here,” Podesta said, adding the significance of the emails was unclear.
In
the meantime, the NYT reported that senior Justice Department officials
vowed to make all resources available to conduct the investigation as
quickly as possible.
In July the FBI’s long investigation of
Clinton’s private email use during her time as secretary of state ended
without any charges.
