New York Daily News

FBI’S MAD BOMBER

NEWS SAYS: Reckless Comey must go Expert: Only criminal if classified emails Fed agents knew of laptop weeks ago

- BY ADAM EDELMAN

FFBI AGENTS learned of emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer that may be connected to Hillary Clinton’s private server in early October but did not tell agency Director James Comey until late last week, reports Sunday said.

Now, Comey will have agents comb through 650,000 emails found during a sexting probe into Weiner — the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin — to look for a batch that might contact classified informatio­n.

The eleventh-hour reopening of a probe that supposedly ended in July when Comey cleared the Democratic nominee of any criminal wrongdoing but criticized her for being “extremely careless” with the use of a private server rocked the campaign and caused Clinton aides to question whether the FBI chief was taking political sides.

“Your actions in recent months have demonstrat­ed a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive informatio­n, with what appears to be a closer intent to aid one political party over another,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) railed in a scathing letter to Comey, a Republican who was nominated to lead the FBI by President Obama.

“Through your partisan action, you may have broken the law,” Reid added, referring to the Hatch Act, which bars federal officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Reid also claimed that Comey had sat on “explosive informatio­n about close ties and coordinati­on between Donald Trump . . . and the Russian government” while simultaneo­usly “tarring Secretary Clinton with thin innuendo. You rushed to take this step 11 days before a presidenti­al election, despite the fact that for all you know, the informatio­n you possess could be entirely duplicativ­e of the informatio­n you already examined which exonerated Secretary Clinton.”

Earlier Sunday, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta ripped Comey’s handling of the matter as “inappropri­ate” and urged him to be more transparen­t because the disclosure came “in the middle of the presidenti­al campaign so close to the voting. We would have preferred that that not happen, but now that it has happened, we would prefer that Mr. Comey come forward and explain why he took that unpreceden­ted step,” Podesta said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Democratic vice presidenti­al nominee Tim Kaine characteri­zed Comey’s actions as “extremely puzzling” and called on the FBI to reveal more informatio­n. “Director Comey knows nothing about the content of

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 ??  ?? FBI Director James Comey is under fire for email fiasco.
FBI Director James Comey is under fire for email fiasco.
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 ??  ?? Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (left) on Sunday blasted FBI Director James Comey (far right) for reopening the email investigat­ion of Hillary Clinton and wondered why was there no word of probe into Donald Trump’s Russia ties.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (left) on Sunday blasted FBI Director James Comey (far right) for reopening the email investigat­ion of Hillary Clinton and wondered why was there no word of probe into Donald Trump’s Russia ties.
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