The investigation into allegations that former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was sexting with a 15-year-old girl led to the uncovering of new emails linked to the Hillary Clinton private server case, the New York Times, the AP and NBC News reported Friday. According to the reporting of NBC News’ Pete Williams, the FBI found the emails while examining a laptop used by Weiner to allegedly send inappropriate messages to the girl. It appears that his now-estranged wife Huma Abedin, Clinton aide, had used Weiner’s laptop to communicate via email with Clinton.
“Now they’ve got to look at those e-mails and decide whether there is classified information in them and if so, whether that changes the conclusion about whether a crime was committed here in using a private e-mail server to transmit classified information,” Williams said.
The new emails “numbered in the thousands,” a federal official told the Times.
The newly found emails first became public in a letter FBI Director James Comey sent to lawmakers Friday informing them the agency was taking a look at the new materials.
The letter said that the FBI had “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” and that it was “taking 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.”
Republicans pounced on the chance to get the Clinton email scandal back into the headlines, while Clinton campaign manager John Podesta called upon the FBI to release more information about the newly-found emails.
After a year-long investigation into whether Clinton’s use of a private email server as Secretary of State, Comey announced in July that the FBI would not recommend that charges be brought against her. He called the decision to use the server “careless,” but said that she and her staff engaged in no “intentional misconduct.”
Update: This story has been updated to reflect new information reported by the New York Times and NBC News.
