FBI clears Clinton -- again
FBI clears Clinton -- again
Comey: FBI has not changed conclusions on Clinton 01:30
Story highlights
- New emails were mostly personal and duplicates of what had already been seen
- AG backed Comey's move Sunday
(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.
"Based
on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in
July," Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee
chairmen.
Comey
dropped a bombshell on the presidential race last month when he sent a
letter to Congress saying the FBI had discovered emails in a separate
investigation that could be connected to the now-closed probe of whether
Clinton mishandled classified information. The move infuriated
Democrats and emboldened Republican nominee Donald Trump.
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 Trump narrow a polling gap
nationally and in key battleground states.
Trump
assailed the FBI's handling of the matter, though he did not directly
address Comey's announcement at a rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
"You
can't review 650,000 new emails in eight days. You can't do it, folks,"
Trump said, adding, "Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI
knows it, the people know it, and now it's up to the American people to
deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8."
Cooper to Conway: Fine to speculate without facts? 02:17
Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, blasted Comey's handling of the review.
"Today's
letter makes Director Comey's actions nine days ago even more
troubling," Feinstein said in a statement. "There's no doubt that it
created a false impression about the nature of the agency's inquiry."
She
added: "The Justice Department needs to take a look at its procedures
to prevent similar actions that could influence future elections."
Franken: Comey should answer Congress' questions 02:40
'As fast as we could'
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, with another law enforcement official saying
investigators worked "around the clock" to review the large volume of
emails.
The FBI found the new
emails as part of its separate investigation into a sexting incident by
Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
The
thousands of new emails were mostly personal and duplicates of what had
already been seen, law enforcement officials said in explaining how the
conclusion was reached so quickly. The laptop which was found was about
a decade old with lots of personal content on it not relevant to the
investigation, according to one source.
The
probe is considered over with regard to Clinton. Though with not all
the deleted emails recovered and not all the devices in FBI's
possession, it is always possible something else could turn up that
would require more review.
There
were some classified emails found, but law enforcement officials
stressed the issue is not the classified information so much as proving
intent. The sources would not specify if the the classified messages
were new or duplicates of ones already reviewed, nor would would
officials say how many there were and what levels at which they were
classified.
"Keep in mind we are
focused on intent," the official said. "We know there are classified
materials, but that doesn't change the conclusion reached back in July."
As
for others who were part of the probe, including Abedin, the FBI is
still working on some remaining aspects of the review, including
determining how the emails ended up on the laptop in the first place.
Abedin's attorneys have said she doesn't know why these emails were
there because this wasn't a computer she used.
Who is Huma Abedin? 03:25
The expectation remains that investigators will have to talk to Abedin again.
It
isn't uncommon to come across new evidence after concluding a probe --
which is what happened here in October. Normally, investigators take a
look to see if anything changes in their conclusions and it's not a
controversial issue. This case isn't a normal case, given the election
and the stakes.
DOJ informed of decision
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 and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates disagreed with Comey's earlier decision to notify Congress. The attorney general backed Comey's move Sunday.
"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," he tweeted.
The Trump campaign quickly slammed Comey.
"We
thought that Director Comey and the FBI were wrong when they made their
initial recommendation in July, and we think that they're wrong now,"
Trump spokesman Jason Miller told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation
Room."
GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence sought to keep the pressure on Clinton.
"Mishandling
classified information is a crime," he said at a rally in an airport
hanger in Hickory, North Carolina. "Hillary Clinton said that she never
sent or received any classified information and the director of the FBI
told the Congress classified information was sent."
In Michigan, Trump called Clinton "the most corrupt person ever to seek the office of the presidency of the United States."
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 Sunday that Clinton is "protected" by powerful forces.
"Well,
you have to understand it's a rigged system and she's protected," Trump
said in Minnesota, 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 her 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 said
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.
"We
have seen Director Comey's latest letter to the Hill," said Jennifer
Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, speaking with reporters
after the news broke. "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."
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 to claim Clinton was 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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