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Emails Warrant No New Action Against Hillary Clinton, F.B.I. Director Says Emails Warrant No New Action Against Hillary Clinton, F.B.I. Director Says
(35 minutes later)
The F.B.I. informed Congress on Sunday that it has not changed its conclusions about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, removing a dark cloud that has been hanging over her campaign two days before Election Day. WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told Congress on Sunday that he had seen no evidence in a recently discovered trove of emails to change his conclusion that Hillary Clinton should face no charges over her handling of classified information.
James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, said in a letter to members of Congress that “based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.” Mr. Comey’s announcement, just two days before the election, was an effort to clear the cloud of suspicion he had publicly placed over her campaign late last month when he alerted Congress that the F.B.I. would examine the emails.
The news that the bureau was looking at emails that it found on a computer used by a top aide to Mrs. Clinton, Huma Abedin, rocked the presidential race last month and provided a new opening for Donald J. Trump. “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusion that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,” Mr. Comey wrote in a letter to the leaders of several congressional committees. He said agents had reviewed all communications to and from Mrs. Clinton in the new trove when she was secretary of state.
Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said in a post on Twitter that the campaign was always confident that she would be cleared of any wrongdoing. That letter ended a tumultuous nine days for both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Comey, who drew widespread criticism for announcing that the F.B.I. had discovered new emails that might — or might not — be relevant to its investigation of Mrs. Clinton, which ended in July with no charges.
Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said in a post on Twitter that the campaign had always believed that she would be cleared of any wrongdoing.
“We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited,” Mr. Fallon said. “Now Director Comey has confirmed it.”“We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited,” Mr. Fallon said. “Now Director Comey has confirmed it.”
Mr. Comey said in the letter that the bureau has reviewed all communications that were to or from Mrs. Clinton while she was secretary of state since he sent his last letter on Oct. 28. The review began after agents discovered a new cache of emails in early October in an unrelated investigation into the disgraced former congressman Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of one of Mrs. Clinton’s closest aides. When searching Mr. Weiner’s laptop for evidence of whether he had exchanged illicit messages with a teenage girl, they discovered emails belonging to the aide, Huma Abedin.
In July, Mr. Comey said that although Mrs. Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless,” there was no evidence of intentional mishandling of classified information. That announcement renewed talk of an investigation that had shadowed Mrs. Clinton for much of the Democratic primary campaign. She and her aides had been under investigation for improperly storing classified information on Mrs. Clinton’s private email server. The discovery of new emails raised the prospect that the laptop might have new information that would renew the F.B.I. inquiry.
In the immediate term, the letter removes a cloud that has hung over the Clinton campaign since Mr. Comey announced his agents were reviewing new emails that might be related to an investigation into Mrs. Clinton that ended in July. But Mr. Comey’s move is sure to raise new questions from Democrats. Most important: Why did Mr. Comey raise the specter of wrongdoing before agents had even read the emails, especially since it took only days to determine they were not significant? Federal law enforcement officials had said for the past week that only something astounding would change their conclusion that nobody should be charged. But the mere potential for legal trouble was enough to make Republicans gleeful. Donald J. Trump highlighted the F.B.I.’s actions in campaign ads.
The Clinton campaign welcomed the news. While Mr. Comey’s new letter was clear in regards to Mrs. Clinton, his message was otherwise vague. He did not say that agents had completed their review of the emails, or that they were abandoning the matter in regard to Ms. Abedin or others.
“We have seen Director Comey’s latest letter to the Hill,” said Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for the campaign. “We are glad to see he has found — as we were confident he would — that he has confirmed the conclusions he reached in July and we’re glad this matter is resolved.” But at the end of a tumultuous week for Mrs. Clinton that included wild false speculation about looming indictments and shocking discoveries in the emails, Mr. Comey’s letter swept away her largest and most immediate problem.
At a rally in Minneapolis, Mr. Trump did not directly address Mr. Comey’s letter, but he alluded to it when he said that Mrs. Clinton would be under investigation for a long time. “She’s protected by a rigged system,” he said. “She shouldn’t even be allowed to run for president.” Republicans immediately accused Mr. Comey of making his announcement prematurely. “Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this and announce something he can’t possibly know.” Newt Gingrich, a Trump adviser, wrote on Twitter.
And Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, responded to Mr. Fallon in a post on Twitter. Mr. Comey’s move is also sure to raise questions from Democrats. Most important among them: Why did Mr. Comey raise the specter of wrongdoing before agents had even read the emails, especially since it took only days to determine that they were not significant.
“Then why did you, your colleagues, and your candidate attack Comey and his credibility?” she asked. The F.B.I. director’s vague, brief announcement last Friday left Mrs. Clinton with few details to rebut and little time to do it. Many current and former F.B.I. agents and Justice Department officials said Mr. Comey had needlessly plunged the F.B.I. into the politics of a presidential election, with no clear way out.
A long list of former Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., chided Mr. Comey. He told colleagues that he had no other choice because he had announced publicly that the investigation into Mrs. Clinton was over.
Because of Mr. Comey’s Oct. 28 letter, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch made completing a review of the emails a top priority. Late last month, Mr. Comey ordered agents to work around the clock to sift through the messages. That process, senior F.B.I. officials said, was painstaking, because each message that had been sent to Mrs. Clinton had to be reviewed to determine whether it had sensitive national security materials.
In Mr. Comey’s short letter to Congress on Sunday, he said that he was “very grateful to the professionals at the F.B.I. for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.”