begin quote from:
All clear
FBI: Review of new emails doesn't change conclusion on Clinton
(CNN)FBI
Director James Comey told lawmakers Sunday the agency hasn't changed
its opinion that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges after a
review of new emails.
Comey
had dropped a bombshell 11 days from the election when he informed
Congress that the FBI had discovered emails in its separate
investigation of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton
aide Huma Abedin, that could be connected to its investigation of
whether Clinton mishandled classified information by using a private
email server.
It's impossible to
know before results are tallied what impact Comey's actions -- first
raising a vaguely worded red flag 11 days out, and then lowering it two
days from the election -- will have on the contest. But the news could
help Clinton put to rest a controversy that has dogged her in the 2016
race's closing days, helping Donald Trump narrow a polling gap
nationally and in key battleground states.
"Based
on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in
July," Comey said in the letter to top Republicans on the House
Oversight Committee.
Comey's letter was the culmination of a fast-paced review of the newly discovered email, law enforcement sources said Sunday.
"We went through this as fast as we could," a senior law enforcement official told CNN.
The
emails, thousands found, were mostly duplicates of what had already
been seen and personal emails, law enforcement officials said in
explaining how the conclusion was reached so quickly. The laptop which
was found was around a decade old, with lots of personal content on it
not relevant to the investigation, according to one source.
Comey
sent the letter as soon as possible, the senior law enforcement
official said. He was "very careful" about how the letter was crafted
given the sensitivities.
Attorney
General Loretta Lynch was informed ahead of time that the FBI director
was sending the updated letter to congress informing them of that there
would be no change in the FBI stance on Hillary Clinton, a Justice
official told CNN on Sunday.
Lynch supported the decision.
"Everyone is on the same page," the source said.
Since there is no change to the original findings, the Justice Department has no need to weigh in further, the official said.
"The
Department of Justice and the FBI dedicated all necessary resources to
conduct this review expeditiously," the Justice Department said in a
brief statement released Sunday afternoon.
Campaigns weigh in
Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said her campaign is validated in its belief that nothing would change.
"We were always confident
nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director
Comey has confirmed it," tweeted Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon.
Donald
Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told MSNBC Sunday after the
news broke: "He's mishandled this investigation from the beginning, and
this proves it yet again."
Trump
himself did not directly address the FBI's latest announcement as he
took the stage at a rally in Minneapolis more than 20 minutes after news
of Comey's letter to Congress surfaced, but continued to argue that
Clinton "will be under investigation for a long, long time."
But
the Republican nominee, who has expressed hope in the last week that
the FBI's review of new emails might yield an indictment, emphasized to
his supporters on Sunday that Clinton is "protected" by powerful forces.
"Well,
you have to understand it's a rigged system and she's protected," Trump
said, though he offered no evidence to back up his theory.
'It opened a wound'
A senior Democrat close to Clinton's campaign told CNN that "it's impossible to fully undo the damage of the last nine days."
Internal
campaign polling, the source said, found that some independents and
Republican women fled Clinton after the original Comey announcement,
robbing the Democratic nominee of a constituency that she'd hoped would
turn her contest with Trump into a blowout.
"It opened a wound that cannot be quickly healed," the Democrat said.
However,
the Democrat called it a relief that the "matter is resolved" and that
Clinton's campaign plans to "make everyone know about" Comey's Sunday
letter.
Comey's last-minute
announcement gives Clinton an opportunity for an I-told-you-so moment --
but it's unlikely to undo the political damage of his initial
announcement.
"We have seen
Director Comey's latest letter to the Hill. We are glad to see that he
has found, as we were confident that he would, that he had confirmed the
conclusions he reached in July and we are glad that this matter is
resolved," said Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director,
speaking with reporters after the news broke.
who's winning?
cnn/orc
cnn poll of polls
49%
Clinton
44%
Trump
3%
Johnson
2%
Stein
Trump and his allies have seized on that announcement, using it claim Clinton is likely to face criminal charges.
"If
she were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional
crisis," Trump claimed Saturday night in Reno, Nevada. "In that
situation we could very well have a sitting president under felony
indictment and ultimately a criminal trial. It would grind government
to a halt."
Political benefit
The
political benefit for Trump has been that Republicans who'd been
skeptical of their party's nominee have largely followed vice
presidential nominee Mike Pence's calls to "come home" to the party --
finding Trump less objectionable than Clinton.
It's
not just Trump's campaign that seized on Comey's actions. Down-ballot
Republicans -- particularly Senate candidates who had been forced to
answer for Trump's statements for months -- used the moment to change
the topic, shifting to the more comfortable ground of attacking Clinton.
The
last-minute Sunday move from Comey could also provide new fuel for
Trump's claims of a "rigged" system -- allowing him to cast the FBI
director's intervention in the presidential election in a new light.
Comey
and the FBI went from Trump's scapegoat to the Republican nominee's
hero, with Trump claiming Comey had redeemed himself just in time.
Newt Gingrich, a top Trump ally, tweeted "Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this."
Dems, GOP react
House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed the significance of Comey's latest letter.
"Regardless
of this decision, 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," Ryan said in a statement.
"Fortunately, the American people have the opportunity to ensure
Secretary Clinton never gets her hands on classified information again."
Capitol Hill Democrats praised Comey's decision to release more information.
"While
the original letter should never have been sent so close to an
election, the expeditious review of these emails should put to rest --
once and for all -- the irresponsible speculation indulged in by the
Trump campaign and others," Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the
House Intelligence Committee said. "Voters can now make their decision
based on the merits, and that decision should be simple: it is the
choice between a woman superbly qualified to be commander in chief, and a
man patently unfit for office."
Republican
National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus issued a statement saying,
"None of this changes the fact that the FBI continues to investigate the
Clinton Foundation for corruption involving her tenure as secretary of
state. Hillary Clinton should never be president."
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