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.
On Sunday, representatives for Hillary for America appeared a number of Sunday morning talk show. Tim Kaine was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, campaign manager Robby Mook was interviewed by Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, and campaign chair John Podesta was interviewed by Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union. Each were asked about the FBI’s renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Kaine called for FBI Director James Comey to release additional details about the investigation and questioned whether Comey had even seen the emails in question.
Mook said that while it seems the emails were discovered on a computer owned by former Representative Anthony Weiner, he is confident that there is no new information to be found and that Weiner’s wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, has cooperated with the FBI’s investigation. On CNN, Podesta called on Comey to explain the move adding, “This is something that has been tossed into the middle of the campaign. 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.” Videos of the interviews are 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.
On Friday, reports began coming out that a program used by the campaign of Hillary Clinton was compromised. Hillary for America quickly responded with a statement assuring supporters and donors, that while it appears that certain programs we hacked, none of the internal systems used by the campaign have been compromised. A copy of HFA’s statement is below.
“An analytics data program maintained by the DNC, and used by our campaign and a number of other entities, was accessed as part of the DNC hack. Our campaign computer system has been under review by outside cyber security experts. To date, they have found no evidence that our internal systems have been compromised.”
On Monday evening, Hillary Clinton spoke during the annual convention of the American Federation of Teachers. Clinton spoke about her dedication to education and teachers saying that she would support efforts to modernize teaching, expand computer science and STEM education, ensure that testing assists teaching, and oppose vouchers and for-profit schools. Clinton also attacked Republican Donald Trump for his divisive policies and Republicans attitude toward education. A video from the event is below.
Two Hillary for America fundraisers were held today. The first was in Portland, Oregon and included a conversation with Senior Policy Advisor Ann O’Leary. The event took place at the home of Leanne Littrell DiLorenzo and John DiLorenzo Jr. The second event was in Atlanta, Georgia. The event featured former Congressman Barney Frank and was held for LGBTQ and Allies for Hillary. The event was hosted by Alan Brewer and Michael Goltzman.
On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton attended two fundraisers and held a town hall event for digital content creators in Los Angeles, California. During the event, Clinton spoke about her plans to cultivate innovation and assist young people with their startups. Clinton then took questions from those in attendance and spoke about a number of topics including job creation, foreign policy alliances, and her thoughts on Republican Donald Trump.
Clinton also unveiled her Initiative on Technology & Innovation on Tuesday. While some of the details were discussed at an event earlier in the day in Denver, more details were discussed during the evening’s town hall. The extensive plan includes proposals to assist entrepreneurs, improve the technology used in the United States, update existing infrastructure, expand computer science and STEM education, protect user privacy, and make government more technologically efficient. An outline of Clinton’s proposals are below and the full details are available on The Briefing.
Spurring entrepreneurship and innovation clusters like Silicon Valley across the country
Allowing young entrepreneurs to defer their federal student loans for up to three years
Connecting every household in America to high-speed internet by 2020
Providing every student in America access to computer science education by the time they graduate
Building the Tech Economy on Main Street
Providing Every Student in America an Opportunity to Learn Computer Science
Engaging the Private Sector to Train up to 50,000 Computer Science Teachers
Encouraging Local STEM Education Investments
Opening up the Higher Education and Job Training Landscape
Rebooting Job Training around Industry Needs and Job Credentials
Supporting Programs to Diversify the Tech Workforce
Spur Entrepreneurship and Innovation Clusters like Silicon Valley across the Country
Support Young Entrepreneurs
Attract and Retain the Top Talent from Around the World
Invest in Science and Technology R&D
Ensure Benefits are Flexible, Portable and Comprehensive
Investing in World-Class Digital Infrastructure
Close the Digital Divide
Launch a “Model Digital Communities” Grant Program
Connect More Community Anchor Institutions to High-Speed Internet
Deploy 5G Wireless
Advancing America’s Global Leadership In Tech & Innovation
Fight for an Open Internet Abroad
Promote Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance
Grow American Technology Exports
Promote Cyber-Security
Safeguard the Free Flow of Information across Border
Update Procedures Concerning Cross-Border Requests for Data by Law Enforcement
Setting Rules of the Road to Promote Innovation While Protecting Privacy
Promote Healthy Competition at the Federal, State and Local Level
Defend Net Neutrality
Improve the Patent System to Reward Innovators
Effective Copyright Policy
Commercial Data Protection
Protect Online Privacy as well as Security
Engineering a Smarter and More Innovative Government
Hillary Clinton Speeches 