FBI Director
James Comey testifies before a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on
Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. on July 14, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File
Photo
Reuters - Democrats kept
up their attacks on FBI Director James Comey on Monday, accusing him of a
double standard after he revealed his agency's probe into more
material that
might relate to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email
server.
Clinton's
Republican rival, Donald Trump, has seized on Comey's announcement on Friday to
press his longstanding charge that Clinton lacks integrity, hoping he can make
an improbable late comeback and win the Nov. 8 election.
The Clinton
campaign and its supporters furiously attacked Comey for releasing information
that raised questions but provided no details so close to the election. Some
party leaders said the agency was concealing damaging information about the
Trump campaign.
The FBI spent
a year investigating Clinton's use of a private email server, instead of
government systems, while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Comey
concluded in July that while Clinton and her staff had been "extremely
careless" in handling classified information there were no grounds for any
charges.
But the issue
resurfaced unexpectedly on Friday when Comey sent a brief letter to members of
Congress to tell them the agency was looking at new emails.
He said
"we don't know the significance of this newly discovered collection of
emails," which were found during an unrelated probe into the estranged
husband of a top Clinton aide. But Trump, a wealthy New York businessman, used
the news to charge that Clinton represents a corrupt political system.
"When we
win on Nov. 8 we are going to Washington D.C. and we are going drain the
swamp," he said on Sunday night at a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"Hillary Clinton is not the victim. You, the American people are the
victims of this corrupt system."
U.S. Senator
Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, accused Comey on Sunday of
"a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information,
with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over
another."
He said,
without providing evidence, that the FBI was keeping “explosive information”
under wraps about ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Democratic
Representative Elijah Cummings hammered this accusation on Monday, urging the
FBI to release information on Trump and his advisers’ dealings with Russia.
“Members of
Congress including myself, have asked for months for the FBI to provide us with
information as to whether Mr, Trump, Mr Manafort, other associates and the
Russian government have any connection with each other,” Cummings told CNN,
referring to a former senior Trump campaign official, Paul Manafort.
An FBI
spokeswoman said late on Sunday: “When we receive the letter it will be handled
through our usual process in responding to members of Congress,” referring to
Reid's accusation.
The U.S.
government has accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks targeting the
Democratic Party that has led to the release of thousands of illegally obtained
emails, revealing the sometimes unflattering inner workings of the party. The
Kremlin has denied this. Trump has declined to implicate Russia in any
wrongdoing.
FBI WARRANT
Democrats have
demanded that Comey and the FBI rapidly work to make public what they know
about the new email trove. A source familiar with the matter said on Sunday
that the FBI had secured a warrant to examine the emails.
Daily tracking
polls should reflect soon whether the controversy is having an impact on the
race. Early voting means that millions of Americans have already cast their
ballots.
Trump had
already narrowed Clinton's lead in national opinion polls and gone into the
lead in a small number of the battleground states where the election is likely
to be decided.
Democrats have
hoped Clinton's lead in opinion polls could also translate into gains in
congressional races on Nov. 8 that could help them take back control of the
Senate and the House of Representatives. That hope could dissipate if Clinton
is damaged by the news about the email probe.
Given that
there are several Senate races that are “razor thin,” the fresh email
controversy “could have an outsized impact because the margins will be so
small,” a senior Senate Democratic aide said on Monday.
The latest
emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S.
Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Huma Abedin, who is
Clinton's closest aide and confidante, sources close to the FBI investigation
have said.
The FBI is
investigating illicit text messages Weiner is alleged to have sent to a
15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
The Wall
Street Journal reported that federal agents are preparing to spend weeks
examining about 650,000 emails contained on Weiner's laptop for possible links
to Clinton's email use.
If Clinton
wins the election, the controversy could cast a cloud over her White House
transition. Trump said the new email cache could represent a
"motherlode" of emails.
Cummings said
on Monday that the FBI’s vague statement on new emails related to the Clinton
investigation made it impossible for Clinton to defend herself and “basically
gave Donald Trump a softball to hit over the fence."
On Sunday,
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook
questioned the FBI head's decision to notify Congress of the email review
before he even knew whether they were significant or relevant.
Comey was
appointed FBI director by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2013.
Cummings, the
Democratic representative, said Comey was under intense pressure and scrutiny
from Republicans in Congress after his conclusion in July that Clinton had not
violated the law, so he released the new information to stave off any
accusations from Republicans that he had withheld information.
Reuters
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