FBI agents and senior agency officials were aware weeks ago that State Department emails were contained in a computer shared by longtime senior Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner.
After FBI Director James Comey was notified of the new emails to and from the State Department, he waited until informing Congress in order to collect additional information on them.
When he was initially informed, questions of whether the emails contained classified information and the number that were new and not previously turned over remained, The Washington Post reported.
The computer containing the emails was used by Abedin’s estranged husband. It was seized on October 3 as a part of an underage sexting probe involving the disgraced New York Congressman. Within days of the seizure, agents discovered State Department emails to and from Abedin routed through Clinton’s private server.
Shortly after this discovery, agents informed senior FBI officials of the new information, but they waited before informing Comey until the relevance of the new data could be determined within legal limits — by examining only the metadata, indicating the sender’s name, recipient’s name, date a subject matter.
Agents received enough information by this means to obtain a search warrant, which in turn prompted Comey’s report to Congress that the Clinton email probe was being re-launched.
In short, the emails were not among those that were previously disclosed and they were relevant.
“He needed to make an informed decision, knowing that once he made that decision, he was taking it to another level,” an official with knowledge of the decision-making process said, according to The Post.
The Post reported:
A formal briefing for Comey with the investigative team was held Oct. 27 at FBI headquarters. At that point, Comey was given a complete presentation of everything the team knew about the trove.
“It was a combination of assessments by the investigative team as to what it might be,” the official told The Post.
Because the FBI’s next logical step was to obtain a warrant to read the emails themselves — a move that would involve people outside the agency — it necessitated making the renewed investigation public.
“It could not be done in secret,” an official with knowledge of the investigation told The Post. “It’s a volatile subject and a major topic in the presidential campaign.”
Nonetheless, Comey’s announcement Friday prompted widespread criticism — especially by Democrats.
Wednesday night, Bret Baier broke the news that emails found on Weiner’s device were not duplicates. Bad news for Team Clinton.
Clip via Fox News Channel
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