E-mails: Hillary hits back
Challenges FBI director to ‘lay all on table’ in latest probe
HILLARY Clinton has challenged FBI director James Comey to provide a fuller explanation of investigative steps he is taking related to her use of a private e-mail server, as the Democratic presidential candidate accused him of “deeply troubling” behaviour 10 days before the US elections.
Speaking in Florida on Saturday Clinton said: “Some of you may have heard about a letter the FBI director sent” on Friday to the US Congress informing it that the agency is again reviewing e-mails.
Comey had decided in July that the FBI was not going to seek prosecution of Clinton for her handling of classified materials on a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state. “It is pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election,” Clinton said. “It’s not just strange, it’s unprecedented and deeply troubling.” She urged Comey to “put it all on the table”.
Fellow Democrats have also worked to pressure Comey to provide details on a controversy that dominated the presidential campaigns, less than two weeks before the November 8 elections.
Four US senators wrote to Comey and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking that they provide by today more detailed information about investigative steps under way.
In Ohio, the Congressional Black Caucus, made up of about 45 members of the House of Representatives, nearly all Democrats, also urged Comey to be more forthcoming. Sources close to the investigation said the latest e-mails were discovered as part of a separate probe into Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner, a former Democratic US congressman from New York, is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit SMSes he is alleged to have sent to a 15-year-old girl.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pounded away at the new FBI development, attacking Clinton in Golden, Colorado, arguing that she is not to be trusted with the presidency. “Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful,” Trump said. “Hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her illegal actions from public disclosure and exposure.”
Comey, however, has not provided any details on whether the e-mails now under review are being seen for the first time by the FBI or the nature of their contents. Clinton’s campaign team tried to downplay the new review. “There’s no evidence or charge of wrongdoing,” said John Podesta, who heads her campaign.