Clinton’s campaign has accused FBI Director James Comey of a blatant double standard for disclosing this probe to Congress but staying silent on its investigations into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russian Federation.
But Obama appeared to be doing exactly that in implicitly criticizing Comey’s decision to send a vague letter last week to Congress – and by extension, the public – informing lawmakers about a discovery of new emails related to Clinton’s use of a private server as secretary of state.
The FBI reportedly also has looked into the aides of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including business ties in Ukraine of Paul Manafort, who resigned in August as Trump’s campaign chairman following revelations that he had orchestrated a secret Ukrainian lobbying campaign in Washington.
But with the clock ticking, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has failed to divulge any pertinent information from the new emails, making its big announcement look deliberately unfair to the Clinton campaign.
The emails were found on a computer seized during an unrelated investigation involving Abedin’s estranged husband, disgraced former NY congressman Anthony Weiner. Weiner, a former Congressman, is under investigation for allegedly sexting a teenager.
It’s possible that Abedin did not know about the emails on Weiner’s computer, forgot about them or for some other reason did not turn them over.
The president defended Clinton in the interview and restated his support for her, the New York Times reported.
“I am the 15-year-old (now 16) who was the victim of Anthony Weiner“, she began the letter.
The FBI has revealed very little to the public about the new emails under investigation, except that they were uncovered during an unrelated investigation into the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide.
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.
Generally, there is a sort of tacit understanding between investigative agencies and Capitol Hill that for sixty days before the election result nothing will be done that could impact adversely on a nominated candidate or give another a distinct advantage by offering him or her ammunition. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the hackings, which were investigated as counterintelligence cases. In a New York Times story on Friday following Comey’s announcement, it was reported that the “unrelated case” that the FBI was investigating when it found a number of new emails was Weiner’s.
“I’ll neither defend nor criticize what Director Comey has chose to communicate to the public about his decision”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during Monday’s press briefing.
Earnest called Comey “a man of integrity” and a “man of good character” but acknowledged that “he’s in a tough spot” when it comes to the Clinton email probe.
Obama also called the controversy surrounding her email server overblown.
In his first public appearance since the new review was disclosed Friday, Comey gathered Tuesday with Lynch and numerous same former officials who signed on to the scathing critique of his action at a Justice Department memorial service for revered federal prosecutor David Margolis, who many regarded as the conscious of the department during more than a half-century of service.