The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has managed to obtain the warrant needed to investigate use of private email server by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 in the run-up to the 2016 presidential vote.
US media reports said Sunday that the federal authorities had been authorized to make the move as the November 8 vote was approaching.
The development came after a three-paragraph letter was sent to the Republican-controlled Congress by FBI Director James Comey about newly discovered emails “pertinent” to Clinton’s email scandal.
Ever since, the Democrats have been accusing him of trying to impact the result of the election under pressure from Clinton’s opponent, Donald Trump, as well as other GOPers.
Back in July, the FBI chief refused to recommend criminal charges against Clinton.
The latest emails were allegedly discovered as part of a different probe of former Democratic US Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin.
Weiner has himself been subject to investigation over allegations of sexting with a teenage girl.
The federal authorities are reportedly set to examine roughly 650,000 on Weiner’s laptop.
“They have 650,000 they have found, it was just reported,” Trump said at a rally in Greeley, Colorado. “I would think they will have some real bad ones, but we’re going to find out. Maybe not, maybe not.”
Meanwhile, US Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid sent a letter to the FBI chief, accusing him of attempts to change the course of the election through violating the Hatch Act.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder has also joined hands with dozens of other former federal prosecutors by signing a letter to censure Comey’s move.
Comey’s disclosure has “invited considerable, uninformed public speculation” about the significance of the emails, read the letter, seen by the AP.
