The FBI said
on Sunday it stood by its earlier finding that no criminal charges were
warranted against Democrat Hillary Clinton for using a private email server for
government work, lifting a cloud over her presidential campaign two days before
the U.S. election.
FBI Director
James Comey made the announcement in a letter to Congress, saying the agency
had worked "around the clock" to complete its review of newly
discovered emails and found no reason to change its July finding.
"During
that process, we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from
Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state," Comey said. "Based
on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in
July."
A law
enforcement source told Reuters the decision closed the FBI probe of Clinton's
email practices.
Comey
informed Congress of the newly discovered emails more than a week ago, throwing
the race for the White House into turmoil and helping to erode Clinton's lead
over Republican candidate Donald Trump in the final stretch before Tuesday's
vote.
"We're
glad this issue is resolved but for the record, this could easily have been
learned before 1st letter was sent," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon wrote
on Twitter.
At a rally
in Michigan, Trump questioned the thoroughness of the FBI review and said he
was confident the issue would not go away.
"The
investigation will go on, the rank-and-file special agents won't let her get
away with her terrible crimes," he told supporters in Sterling Heights,
Michigan.
Clinton did
not mention the FBI email decision during campaign appearances in Ohio and New
Hampshire.
U.S. stock
index futures rose more than 1 percent after the FBI announcement, suggesting
Wall Street was poised to end its longest skid in more than three decades. The
U.S. dollar also jumped in Asian trading against the yen, euro and Swiss franc.
U.S. Treasury
futures dropped and Tokyo's Nikkei share average opened up 1.31 percent. Global
financial markets slipped last week as opinion polls showed the presidential
race tightening.
DEMOCRATS
NOT LETTING COMEY OFF HOOK
The latest
emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S.
Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma
Abedin. Weiner is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages
he allegedly sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Federal
investigators got a warrant to examine the emails to see if they were related
to the probe into Clinton's private server. Democrats reacted angrily to
Comey's intrusion into the race and demanded quick action in examining the
emails.
"I am
very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount
of high-quality work in a short period of time," Comey said on Sunday.
But
Democrats did not let Comey and the FBI off the hook. U.S. Senator Dianne
Feinstein of California said Sunday's announcement made Comey's earlier letter
"even more troubling" and called for the Justice Department to review
its procedures to prevent similar actions to influence future elections.
"By
confirming that the new emails were meaningless, today's letter underscores the
irresponsibility of Director Comey's original letter," Senate Democratic
leader Harry Reid said.
Republicans
kept up their criticism of Clinton despite Comey's announcement.
"She
simply believes she's above the law and always plays by her own rules,"
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement, arguing that
Clinton's use of a private email server "compromised our national
security."
Republican
National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus said that while the probe had not
led to criminal charges, it produced evidence that Clinton broke the law and
"repeatedly lied to the American people about her reckless conduct."
News of the
renewed probe had appeared to fuel a recent slide in Clinton's poll numbers.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton with a 5 percentage point lead
over the New York businessman nationally - 44 percent to 39 percent support -
while races in the swing states of Florida and North Carolina shifted from
favoring Clinton to being too close to call.
The
Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project estimates that Clinton has a 90
percent chance of winning the election.
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