FBI reexamines Clinton emails, citing new material

The FBI said Friday it will investigate whether there is classified information in newly discovered emails that appear to be related to its probe of Hillary Clinton’s email practices, reinjecting one of the most toxic political issues into the presidential campaign less than two weeks before Election Day.

The Friday afternoon disclosure raises the possibility of the FBI reopening the criminal investigation involving the Democratic presidential nominee, which the agency said was complete in July.

In a letter sent Friday to congressional leaders, FBI Director James Comey said that new emails have emerged, prompting the agency to “take appropriate investigative steps” to review information that flowed through the private email sever Clinton used while serving as secretary of state.

Clinton’s email use has been one of the biggest vulnerabilities in her campaign for the White House. Even if she wins, Republicans have vowed the issue will follow her, promising continuing investigations.

She made no mention of the FBI development at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Friday, though she warned her supporters, “Anything can happen” in the campaign’s closing days.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the department learned about the FBI letter from news reports and did not get any notification from the FBI. Toner pledged the department would “cooperate to the full extent that we can.”

The White House, through a spokesman, also declined to immediately comment.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Clinton has “nobody but herself to blame.”

“She was entrusted with some of our nation’s most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information,” Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement.

“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.”

A yearlong investigation by the FBI focused on whether Clinton sent or received classified information using the private server located in the basement of her New York home, which was not authorized to handle such messages.

Comey said in July that his agents didn’t find evidence to support any criminal charges or direct evidence that Clinton’s private server was hacked. He suggested that hackers working for a foreign government may have been so sophisticated they wouldn’t have left behind any evidence of a break-in.

Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump immediately jumped on the news, praising the FBI for reviewing its decision to close the inquiry and arguing that the Democrat’s use of a private email server while in office should disqualify her from the presidency.

“We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” Trump told cheering crowds at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” he declared.