Reuters: The FBI said on Sunday it still believed no charges were warranted against Democrat Hillary Clinton after finishing its review of newly discovered emails related to her private server, lifting a cloud over her presidential campaign two days before the U.S. election.
FBI Director James Comey made the announcement in a letter to Congress on Sunday, saying the agency had not changed its conclusions from July that no criminal charges were warranted against Clinton for her use of a private email server for government work.
“The FBI investigative team has been working around the clock to process and review a large volume of emails from a device obtained in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation,” Comey said in the letter.
“During that process, we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state.”
A law enforcement source told Reuters the conclusion closes for now the FBI probe of the former secretary of state’s email practices.
Comey had informed Congress of the newly discovered emails more than a week ago, throwing the race for the White House into turmoil and eroding Clinton’s lead over Republican candidate Donald Trump in the final stretch before Tuesday’s vote.
“I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time,” Comey said.
Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters aboard Clinton’s campaign plan that, “We are glad the matter is resolved.”
The latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he is alleged to have sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Federal investigators got a warrant a week ago to examine the emails to see if they were related to the probe into Clinton’s private server. Democrats reacted angrily to Comey’s intrusion into the race and demanded quick action in examining the emails.
“I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time,” Comey said on Sunday.
Trump, who has hammered Clinton over the issue, arguing it was proof she is corrupt and untrustworthy, did not mention the decision at a rally in Minneapolis right after it was announced.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus said that while the probe had not led to criminal charges, it produced evidence that Clinton broke the law and “repeatedly lied to the American people about her reckless conduct.”
News of the renewed probe hurt Clinton’s poll numbers, with Trump cutting into her once formidable lead.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Clinton with a 5 percentage point lead over the New York businessman in the national survey – 44 percent to 39 percent support – while races in the swing states of Florida and North Carolina have shifted from favouring Clinton to being too close to call.
The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project estimates that Clinton has a 90 percent chance of winning the election.
The U.S. dollar, which dipped to a more than one-month low against the safe-haven Swiss franc on Friday on increasing uncertainty about the White House race, jumped in Asian trading after the FBI’s latest announcement, gaining about 1 percent against the yen.
Global financial markets last week slipped as polls showed the presidential race tightening. Weakness in oil prices raised concerns about low inflation and pushed U.S. Treasury prices higher.
