Clinton campaign doubts FBI motive, seeks more info

WASHINGTON: Stunned by the FBI’s decision to re-open its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, her campaign has raised doubts over the agency’s move just days before the presidential elections and sought more information about the probe.

“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election. The director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July,” said Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta.

The Clinton Campaign was taken aback when it learned from the US media that FBI Director James Comey has written a letter to top Congressional leaders, informing that it has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to its investigation into the use of private server and personal emails by Clinton when she was secretary of state in 2009-12.

“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to this investigation,” Comey wrote in a letter to several House committee chairmen. Neither the state department nor the White House knew about the latest move by the FBI, until the letter was leaked to the media by a Republican leader in the Congress who was one of its recipient.

Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump, who has been trailing in the elections, declared the development as bigger than “Watergate” scandal. It took a few hours for Clinton Campaign to respond to the FBI’s decision, which more than three months ago had determined that there is no need to file a legal case against the former secretary of state.