In another upheaval to the presidential race, FBI Director James Comey on Sunday afternoon sent a new letter to Congress notifying members that after reviewing a new batch of emails to and from Hillary Clinton, the bureau has not “not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.”
New Comey letter: FBI has not changed its conclusion regarding Clinton use of personal email server pic.twitter.com/IdKT1gweMf
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 6, 2016
In the letter, Comey said that FBI investigators “reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State.”
NBC’s Pete Williams reported on air via phone on Sunday afternoon, citing a senior law enforcement official, that nearly all of the emails the FBI looked at in its new review were duplicates of emails they had already reviewed during the original investigation. Williams also reported that the FBI’s new review of emails is now “substantially” over.
Comey’s latest announcement, which again came in a brief letter to members of Congress, has the potential to alter the presidential race yet again.
Comey first sent shockwaves through the presidential race with a short, vague letter to Congress on Oct. 28 announcing that the FBI would review new emails related to the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. The FBI discovered new emails related to the probe while investigating allegations that Anthony Weiner sent inappropriate text messages to a teenage girl.
The Donald Trump campaign, flailing after the release of Trump’s vulgar comments on a 2005 tape, latched onto the news and Trump has injected new energy into painting Clinton as a criminal.
But the renewed prominence of the narrative around Clinton’s email use has come full circle with another letter from Comey. It even appears that both bombshell letters were first reported in tweets from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).
FBI Dir just informed us “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Sec Clinton”
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) November 6, 2016
Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon was quick to react to the news, publishing a tweet shortly after Comey’s letter was publicized that the campaign was “always confident” that the review of new emails would not change the course of the FBI’s investigation.
We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director Comey has confirmed ithttps://t.co/BMQQx9eRzw
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) November 6, 2016
Despite Comey’s letter again clearing Clinton, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) insisted in a statement that “the undisputed finding of the FBI’s investigation is that Secretary Clinton put our nation’s secrets at risk and in doing so compromised our national security” and confirmed his support for Trump.
