The announcement Friday by FBI director James Comey that his agency has knowledge of emails that may be pertinent to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email mail server left the public wondering what it meant and what would come next.
Here’s a look at what we know about the investigation, and what we don’t know.
Why did they announce an investigation now? Wasn’t that completed during the summer?
Comey on July 5 announced the findings of a months-long investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server, but the new investigation stems from another investigation in which a laptop was retrieved and where emails believed to have some connection to the first investigation were discovered.
The emails were discovered on a laptop device owned by former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Abedin is deputy director of Clinton’s election campaign. In her role as Clinton’s aide, Abedin sent and received emails through a server that Clinton set up in her New York home.
The investigation that Comey announced Friday grew out of an investigation of Weiner, who is being investigated for sexting with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Authorities said he used a laptop that investigators say Abedin might have used to send and receive emails.
Why was there an investigation into using a private email server?
It’s fine to use your own server, but not if you are using it to do work for the U.S. government, especially if you are handling sensitive information, officials said. It is a federal crime to mishandle such information. In 2015, when it came to light that Clinton had used a private email server to conduct government business, the FBI began an investigation.
What resulted from the investigation?
Comey said in July that the investigation was complete and that there was no case for criminal prosecution for mishandling classified information, though he said Clinton was “extremely careless” in the handling of such information.
Two days after he issued the statement, he testified before Congress and was grilled by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina. Part of their exchange went like this:
Gowdy: "Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her emails sent or received. Was that true?"
Comey: "That's not true. There were a small number of portion markings on, I think, three of the documents."
Gowdy: "Secretary Clinton said, 'I did not email any classified information to anyone on my email. There was no classified material.' That is true?"
Comey: "There was classified information emailed."
Gowdy: "Secretary Clinton used one device, was that true?"
Comey: "She used multiple devices during the four years of her term as secretary of state."
Gowdy: "Secretary Clinton said all work-related emails were returned to the State Department. Was that true?"
Comey: "No. We found work-related email, thousands, that were not returned."
It was that testimony that fueled Republican anger over the result of the investigation.
Comey's letter to congressional leaders on Friday indicated that more emails had been found and they could have a bearing on the earlier investigation.
Is this something that the FBI normally does?
According to The Associated Press:
No, but neither was the Clinton email investigation.
In a nod to the extraordinary nature of an election-year probe into a presidential candidate, Comey promised extraordinary transparency as he announced the investigation's conclusion in July.
"I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest," Comey said at the news conference at which he announced that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges against Clinton.
Since then, the FBI has periodically released investigative files, or summaries of witnesses who were interviewed. Those materials aren't typically public.
Comey, a Republican, has served in government under both Democratic and Republican administrations. He speaks repeatedly about the need for the FBI to be accountable to the public.
His letter Friday seemed in keeping with a statement that he made to Congress last month that, although the FBI had concluded its investigation, "we would certainly look at any new and substantial information" that emerged.
What we know
• The FBI has obtained a search warrant to allow investigators to begin viewing the newly discovered emails on the laptop belonging to Weiner. The FBI had not seen the emails when the announcement was made. The New York Times reported that a search warrant was required to look at the emails because Abedin’s emails were not directly related to the investigation of her husband.
• There are an estimated 650,000 emails on the computer, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Abedin, who served as Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, had four email accounts during her time at the State Department. The accounts that she said she used included an official State Department email account, an account on Clinton’s private email server, a personal Yahoo account and a separate email account that she said she used “to support her husband’s political activities.”
• The Washington Post reported that Abedin’s lawyers did not search that laptop for work-related emails after she agreed to turn over the messages to the State Department.
• Several sources are saying that law enforcement officials believe it is “highly unlikely” that the bulk of the emails are duplicates of what has already been discovered.
• The FBI has known for weeks about the emails on Weiner's laptop, the Washington Post reported. The FBI seized the device on Oct. 3 and found a trove of Abedin's emails.
• According to The New York Times, the assistant FBI director in charge of the New York field office notified the deputy director of the FBI about the emails.
• Agents in the Weiner case were told to look at the “to” and “from” lines on some of the emails to see if they were connected to the investigation into Clinton’s private email server. They were not allowed to look at the emails themselves.
• A legal analysis was conducted on how to proceed once it was discovered that some emails could pertain to the Clinton investigation.
• Abedin has said that she does not know how the emails were found on that laptop.
What we don’t know
• Whether any of the emails on the computer contain classified information
• If Abedin failed to turn over emails on the device after she told her lawyers that she turned over the emails to the State Department
• How will it affect the election
• If any more information will be released before the election. Smart money says it won’t.
About the Author
