Last week, the FBI and State Department released documents related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. The FBI released 299 pages of internal records detailing a fight between the bureau and the State Department over the classification of an email regarding arrests related to the attacks on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. The report includes internal emails as well as internal memos that shed additional light into the investigation of Clinton’s emails by the FBI. Read the report below or download a PDF copy HERE.
Meanwhile, the State Department released 371 of the 15,000 emails that were turned over to the department by the FBI. The total document dump totaled over 1,000 pages and are “near duplicates” of the documents turned over by Clinton’s team in 2014. The State Department has been reviewing the emails turned over by the FBI since late summer 2016 and has reported that about 60% of the emails were personal in nature and not related to business. Of the emails that relate to Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, the department reports that a “substantial number” of them are duplicates of those that have been previously reviewed. The State Department will continue to review and release the emails until all 15,000 have been examined. You can access the latest batch of emails by following the steps below:
Earlier this week, the State Department released 362 of the 15,000 emails that were turned over to the department by the FBI. The total document dump totaled over 1,000 pages and are “near duplicates” of the documents turned over by Clinton’s team in 2014. The State Department has been reviewing the emails turned over by the FBI since late summer and has reported that about 60% of the emails were personal in nature and not related to business. Of the emails that relate to Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, the department reports that a “substantial number” of them are duplicates of those that have been previously reviewed. The State Department will continue to review and release the emails until all 15,000 have been examined. You can access the latest batch of emails by following the steps below:
FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to ranking members of Congress on Sunday with the bureau’s conclusions following an investigation into emails found on a computer owned by former Congressman Anthony Weiner. The emails were related to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. In his letter, Comey says that the FBI stands by its decision to not bring a case against Clinton and that the new emails yielded no new information. Comes said that “based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.” Since the FBI announced it was looking into the emails last week, the Clinton campaign has maintained that there was nothing new to be found. News sources indicate that the majority of the emails found on the computer were duplicates of the emails already reviewed by the bureau. Read the full letter from the FBI director below or download a PDF HERE.
Yesterday, the State Department released a new batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server. These emails are part of a group of emails that were recovered by the FBI and turned over to the State Department for review. The release includes 1,280 pages and more are expected to be released on Friday. None of the newly released emails contained classified information and there are several duplicate emails from those already released by the State Department. The emails were released following an agreement between a federal court and the State Department stating that the emails would be reviewed and released prior to the election. To access the emails, follow the steps below:
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to a Congressional Judiciary Committee explaining that the FBI had decided to reopen the case investigating Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. The three page letter did not go into much detail which lead the Clinton campaign to respond. Campaign Chair John Podesta released a statement calling on Comey and the FBI to release more information surrounding their reasoning considering the election is less than two weeks away. The statement from Podesta is below.
“Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call. In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen. Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is ‘reopening’ an investigation but Comey’s words do not match that characterization. Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant.
It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.
The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”
The FBI did elaborate later in the day saying that additional evidence related to the Clinton investigation was discovered on a laptop seized during the investigation of Rep. Anthony Weiner. FBI officials said that the bureau will investigate the newly discovered emails on the laptop and that it is possible that the emails could be duplicates of ones previously turned over by the Clinton camp. State Department officials said they have not been made aware of the FBI’s new evidence. More details are likely to be released in the coming weeks, but the news of a reopened investigation could affect Clinton at the polls.
Read the letter from Comey to Congress below (download the letter HERE).
UPDATE (10/28): Following an event in Des Moines, Iowa, Hillary Clinton spoke at a press event and addressed the issues of the FBI reopening its investigation. Clinton said that the FBI needs to release additional details regarding its investigation with the election being less than two weeks away. “Voting is underway, so the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” she said. She said that she was confident that nothing new would be found and that she did not know what new evidence the FBI might be referring to adding, “Right now, your guess is as good as mine, and I don’t think that’s good enough.” A video of Clinton’s statement is below.
UPDATE (10/29):The Washington Post obtained a copy of an internal memo sent by FBI director James Comey to FBI employees. In the letter, he briefly explains his reasoning for taking the early details of an investigation to Congress. Read the letter below:
To all:
This morning I sent a letter to Congress in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation. Yesterday, the investigative team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case. Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them.
Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.
Jim Comey
UPDATE (10/29): Hillary for America responded to the news with several press releases and a post on Medium from campaign chair John Podesta.
UPDATE (10/30): The FBI announced that it obtained a warrant to search the emails found on a laptop belonging to former Congressman Anthony Weiner. While it is unclear how many emails on the laptop, if any, are relevant to the Hillary Clinton email investigation, an official revealed that there are over 650,000 emails on the computer. It is likely that the majority belong to the former Congressman, but his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, also used the laptop. FBI officials also revealed today that several lower level investigators knew the emails existed weeks ago, but only recently brought them to the attend of Director James Comey. It is also unclear why a warrant was received after Comey briefed Congress of the investigation on Friday.
Hillary for America campaign chair John Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook have been on the defensive since the revelations were announced. The campaign released a video about the facts of the case and calling for more details to be released considering the timing. The video released by The Briefing is below.
UPDATE (10/31): Former Attorney General Eric Holder wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he called FBI director James Comey “a good man,” but said that he made a mistake by telling Congress about evidence that may have nothing to do with the Hillary Clinton email case. In the editorial, Holder says, “The department has a practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations. Indeed, except in exceptional circumstances, the department will not even acknowledge the existence of an investigation. The department also has a policy of not taking unnecessary action close in time to Election Day that might influence an election’s outcome. These rules have been followed during Republican and Democratic administrations. They aren’t designed to help any particular individual or to serve any political interest. Instead, they are intended to ensure that every investigation proceeds fairly and judiciously; to maintain the public trust in the department’s ability to do its job free of political influence; and to prevent investigations from unfairly or unintentionally casting public suspicion on public officials who have done nothing wrong.” Read the full editorial HERE.
Throughout the week, Hillary for America has continued to release new campaign ads and videos. The first video they released is entitled “Barbershop” and includes African American voters making the case for electing Hillary Clinton. Then a video featuring President Barack Obama making the case for Hillary entitled “On the Ballot.” The next video features the story of Mae Brown Wiggins and how she was a victim of discrimination in an apartment building owned by Donald Trump. The next video is also about Trump and attacks his comments about women. The next ad features retired General John Allen. In the video, he makes the case for electing Clinton over Trump. Next is a series of two ads that are part of the final push before election day. Both ads ask what kind of country we want for our children? Then a short video featuring a conversation with Tim Kaine and rapper Pusha-T. Next is a video called “One Vote at a Time” that is the first in a series of videos featuring YouTube stars. The final video is a Spanish language ad that features the story of U.S. Army Pvt. Damián López Rodriguez, a soldier killed in Iraq. Watch the videos below.
On Friday, Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of two major local newspapers. The first was Florida’s Miami Herald. The paper’s editorial board makes their case for Clinton is their opening paragraph saying, “Let’s make clear what the 2016 presidential election isn’t about: It is not about choosing between a bad candidate and a worse one. The narrative that Hillary Clinton is the lesser of two evils is patently wrong. Ms. Clinton is a pragmatic, tough-minded woman of accomplishment and political conviction with a demonstrated mastery of policy. She is politically flawed. However, Donald Trump is a damaged human being.” The board continues by making the case for Clinton by exploring her career and her positions on a number of issues.
The second newspaper added to the growing list of papers backing Clinton is the Idaho Statesman. In their op-ed, the editorial board makes the case for why Clinton is the best candidate for Idaho because of her policies, experience, and history of bipartisanship. Ultimately the board concludes, “Trump’s fantasies about a new country and era where “outsiders” are better equipped to fix Washington will always be undefined and out of reach. The need to compromise could never happen with him in charge. We live in the real world, with real problems that need real solutions. We need someone with pragmatic approaches that include patience and compassion. We need Hillary Clinton to be the next president.” Read the full editorials by clicking the links in the article or the links in the news source section below.
After Donald Trump doubled down his view that the five men convicted and later exonerated on DNA evidence in the Central Park Jogger case are still guilty, Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor Maya Harris released the following statement:
“The facts here are clear: These men were exonerated. Another man has admitted to committing the crime, as proven by DNA evidence. Trump rushed to judgment on the case, has refused to admit he is wrong and continues to peddle yet another racist lie, a pattern for him and a clear reason why he is unfit to be president.”
On Thursday, America Online co-founder Steve Case wrote an op-ed, published in The Washington Post, in which he endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Case writes about his apprehension to enter the political realm, and that he has only advised politicians about technical policy in the past. However, he believes that the 2016 presidential race was different, and he felt the need to speak up. He said, “I don’t agree with everything Clinton has said and done. I take issue with some aspects of her platform, and I worry about her inclination to all too often view the government as the solution to problems. If she becomes president, I’m sure there will be plenty of times I will disagree with her. But for 2016, I believe Hillary Clinton represents the best choice for the United States — and our best hope to remain the most innovative and entrepreneurial nation in the world.” Read Case’s full op-ed HERE.
On Friday, the FBI released a new document containing notes from their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as Secretary of State. The new report is 189 pages long and features notes from interviews with Clinton staffers including Cheryl Mills and Bryan Pagliano, the person who set up and maintained Clinton’s server. The document reveals that State Department officials were concerned whether the use of private email complied with public record keeping policies. Mills and Pagliano cited other Secretaries of State that had used private email. Hillary for America spokesman Brian Fallon responded to the document release saying, “These materials further demonstrate why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case.” In July, the FBI announced that it did not have case against Clinton for mishandling classified information. Read a copy of the the FBI’s notes below or download a copy HERE.
Hillary Clinton Speeches 