Posted Oct 28, 2016
Huma Abedin with Hillary
Hillary Clinton’s waltz toward the White House has just been complicated by a bombshell dropped on her path by the FBI — police announced they are examining new emails three months after they cleared her of criminal wrongdoing.
The news jolted markets that have heretofore treated a Clinton victory as a fait accompli. Stock markets, the Mexican peso, and her odds on political gambling sites all dipped slightly upon the early-afternoon news.
The political bomb arrived in a package from FBI director James Comey.
In a letter to Republicans in Congress, Comey said he had been briefed on the existence of other emails just found during an unrelated investigation, and they appeared to be pertinent to the original case. Clinton had been cleared in July of criminally mishandling classified information.
Investigators are now examining the new emails for classified information, Comey said.
”The FBI cannot assess whether or not this material may be significant,” he wrote. ”I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work.”
Vague as it was, the news prompted celebration from Republicans.
Cheers erupted at a Donald Trump rally as he arrived on stage and told a New Hampshire crowd: ”I need to open with a very critical breaking news announcement.” His fans had clearly heard the news already, and immediately began chanting, ”Lock her up!”
He applauded the FBI for reopening Clinton’s case — other Republicans used similar language. The FBI, however, never went that far in its letter. Comey’s letter only referred to an examination of new emails.
The New York Times reported that the emails were discovered after the FBI seized the personal devices of Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman best known for his multiple sexting scandals.
Democrats implored the FBI to release more information — calling the vaguely worded, sensitively timed letter deeply unfair, given that it was released without context less than two weeks before an election.
”We have no idea what those emails are and the director himself notes they may not even be significant,” said a statement from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.
“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.”
Clinton did not mention the issue in a Friday rally. President Barack Obama was set to address a rally later in the day in Florida, one of multiple stops he has planned in the final days of the campaign, with polls showing Democrats leading nationally and in almost every major swing state.
To Canadians, the phenomenon might smack of deja vu.
In the midst of a federal election a decade ago, the national police force sent a letter to opposition politicians confirming a criminal investigation into the governing party. In that case, it was the RCMP investigating the Martin Liberals for insider trading.
The letter from Giuliano Zaccardelli proved devastating.
The scandal-plagued Liberals had been leading in the polls. Despite being battered by controversies over corruption in federal advertising, and the insider-trading allegations related to a tax-policy announcement, they entered the winter break in first place. They lost about five percentage points within days, fell into second place, never recovered, and spent 10 years in opposition.
Nobody from the governing party was ever charged in the investigation, related to a spike in stock purchases on the eve of the Liberal government announcing a share-boosting tax policy.
One federal employee pleaded guilty to breach of trust, and was fined $14,000.
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