FBI Chief Comey: Bureau Stands by July Conclusions About Clinton’s Email, Won’t Recommend Charges

After nine days of turmoil and reports of strife within the FBI’s ranks, Director James Comey made yet another announcement Sunday that could impact Tuesday’s presidential election. This time, the intelligence agency chief bore good news for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

READ: Read the Open Letter By Former Federal Prosecutors Criticizing James Comey

According to the Washington Post, Comey sent a letter to key Congress members notifying them that the FBI had finished its high-speed and high-stakes review of additional emails that were sent either to or from Hillary Clinton and were found on a laptop belonging to former Congressman Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The end result, Comey said, was that the bureau was not going to recommend charges against the Democratic presidential nominee:

Comey wrote that investigators had worked “around the clock” to review all the emails found on a device used by former congressman Anthony Weiner that had been sent to or from Clinton and that “we have not changed our conclusions expressed in July.”

The conclusion from Comey provided one last twist to the 2016 presidential campaign and came just two days before Clinton will face Republican Donald Trump on Election Day.

… Comey had come under fire for inserting the FBI into the campaign’s final days with the announcement.

In his letter, Comey told Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, Alabama Rep. Richard Shelby and others that he wanted to “supplement my October 28, 2016 letter that notified you the FBI would be taking additional investigative steps with respect to former Secretary of State Clinton’s use of a personal email server.” Based on the agency’s review, Comey said, “we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.”

Whether this update to the Clinton investigation will tamp down critics’ accusations that the FBI, and specifically Comey, had crossed a line by impacting the course of the election so close to its conclusion remains to be seen. Meanwhile, as of this posting, GOP presidential nominee had yet to react to the news via his preferred interactive medium, but that could be because his campaign aides have taken over his Twitter controls.

—Posted by Kasia Anderson

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