FBI's Investigation of Hillary Clinton Emails Turns Focus To Anthony Weiner Sexting Scandal

The FBI is investigating a new batch of emails related to Hillary Clinton, these reportedly obtained by agents during a separate probe into the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal.

FBI Director James Comey said Friday in a letter to Congress that the bureau has not read the emails but wants an investigation to move forward so agents can begin combing through them.

The letter comes 11 days before the nation's presidential election and has revived controversy around the broader email controversies that have long dogged the former secretary of state and her campaign.

Comey said the FBI found the emails "in connection with an unrelated case" but did not specify which one. The New York Times, though, first reported that the emails were discovered on devices belonging to Weiner, the disgraced former U.S. Rep. from New York, and his wife, Huma Abedin, a top aide to Clinton.

Weiner in August was caught sending lewd pictures of himself with his infant son also in the frame. In September, a 15-year-old girl came forward to say Weiner sexted with her. Weiner and Abedin have since separated.

In a press conference Friday night, Clinton called on the FBI to release the "full and complete facts." She said she has "heard the rumors" that Weiner's investigation was involved but didn't know whether that was true or not.

"We don’t know what to believe, and I’m sure there will be even more rumors," she said. "That’s why it is incumbent on the FBI to tell us what they’re talking about. Right now, your guess is as good as mine. And I don’t think that’s good enough."

Comey's letter was short on details. He did not say who sent or received the emails, what they may have contained, how the FBI discovered them or how long a new probe may take.

"I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday," the letter said, "and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said Comey "should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter" sent Friday.

Podesta took exception to the idea that the FBI was "reopening" its investigation into Clinton because "we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant."

"It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election," Podesta continued. "The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining."

In July, Comey concluded that Clinton had been "extremely careless" in operating an email account through a private server in her home on which she conducted State Department business while she was secretary of state. But he said "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring criminal charges against her, so he did not recommend any to the U.S. Justice Department.

Trump took the stage at a rally in New Hampshire to capitalize on the news. A raucous crowd cheered loudly and uninterrupted for several seconds, then chanted "Lock her up!" after Trump told his supporters the news.

"Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen before," he said. "We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office."

Earlier this month, Trump said the FBI and Clinton are in collusion and that a recent dump of hacked emails from Podesta are "proof of corruption at the highest level" between Clinton and the FBI.

In an appearance Thursday night on Fox News, Trump told Bill O'Reilly, "I think the biggest rigging of all is what has happened with the FBI and the Justice Department with respect to Hillary Clinton."

By Friday afternoon he had changed his tune.

“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the DOJ are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” Trump said in New Hampshire. “This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understand. It is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.”

Clinton has two events scheduled Friday afternoon in Iowa. At her first stop in Cedar Rapids, she did not mention the new revelations.

Aboard Air Force One, White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said the White House had no advance notice of the FBI's decision and learned about it through media reports like the rest of America.

Top Republicans immediately seized on the news, many jumping to conclusions well beyond what has been offered by the FBI director.

"Yet again, Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. "She was entrusted with some of our nation's most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information.

"This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators. I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved."

You can read Comey's full letter to Congress below:

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Image via Tim Pierce, Flickr, used under Creative Commons