Hillary's nightmare: Feds get a warrant to start search for classified info in 650,000 emails - thousands of them from her private server - on sexting Weiner's laptop. Clinton faces ongoing FBI probe even if she's elected President
- FBI now has warrant needed to read private emails from Huma Abedin
- Those emails - found on Anthony Weiner's laptop - may include some to Clinton's private server
- FBI agents have said it could take weeks to go through emails - meaning Clinton would face an ongoing probe even if she is elected President
- They have found 650,000 in total; thousands could be related to server
- Analysis of metadata turn up hits for 'state.gov and HRC emails'
- Means Clinton could still be subject of en FBI probe if elected president
- A third of voters said the FBI's announcement has affected their support
- Clinton's friends and allies are urging her to distance herself from Abedin
- Abedin stayed behind in New York while Hillary campaigned in Florida
The FBI now has a warrant to read the emails from Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's most trusted aide, which were among hundreds of thousands discovered on Anthony Weiner's laptop.
Law
enforcement officials confirmed that investigators gained permission to
start trawling through the 650,000 emails discovered on the laptop on
Sunday evening, NBC reported. Thousands of them could be from Clinton's private server.
Feds
seized the laptop belonging to Weiner, Abedin's disgraced husband, in
September after DailyMail.com exposed his sexting of a 15-year-old girl.
In
early October, agents told FBI heads they'd found emails on the laptop
from Abedin that may have been deleted from Clinton's private server but
their warrant did not allow them to read emails that were not linked to
the Weiner investigation.
The newly reopened investigation will take time due to the sheer volume of emails to be read, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It will likely take agents until well past the election to
assess how many, if any, contain classified information - leaving
Clinton with the prospect of facing an ongoing investigation even if she
is elected president.
The
Democratic candidate already shows signs of slipping in the polls after
an ABC News/Washington Post tracker poll revealed Trump was just one
point behind - an 11 point change since last week.
And
since FBI director James Comey's shock announcement on Friday that the
Clinton private server probe was to be reopened, questions have
continued to mount over Abedin's future on the Clinton campaign. She has
stayed behind in New York while her boss hits the campaign trail.
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The renewed FBI investigation into
Hillary Clinton's handling of classified material could take weeks
because agents have found 650,000 emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop.
Here, se is seen speaking to a crowd in Miami, Florida, on Sunday
The Democratic candidate (seen with
supporters in Florida on Sunday) already shows signs of slipping in the
polls after a ABC News/Washington Post tracker poll revealed Trump was
just one point behind. That's an 11 point change since last week
Huma Abedin is seen leaving Hillary
Clinton's campaign headquarters in New York on Sunday as the scandal
surrounding the email's found on her husband's laptop deepened
Weiner, disgraced husband of Hillary's
right-hand woman Huma Abedin, had his laptop seized in September after
DailyMail.com exposed his sexting of a 15-year-old girl
Abedin has pleaded ignorance about how the emails ended up on husband Weiner's laptop.
She
swore under oath while testifying in a lawsuit brought against the
State Department by Judicial Watch that she had handed over all of her
devices that could hold emails relevant to the investigation into
Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
If she’s found to have lied she could face up to five years in jail.
On
Sunday, Clinton - no longer accompanied by Abedin - said at a Florida
rally that she would not be 'knocked off course' by Friday's shocking
development.
'I'm
not stopping now, we're just getting warmed up,' she declared to a
packed crowd with many gay and lesbian supporters in the city of Wilton
Manors.
'We're not going to be distracted, no matter what our opponents throw at us.'
Donald
Trump delivered a swift kick to disgraced former Democratic congressman
Weiner on Sunday, thanking him for preserving the emails that could
bring Clinton down.
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The
Republican presidential nominee told more than 7,000 people packed into a
Las Vegas casino ballroom that be believes the FBI has recovered some
of Clinton's 33,000 deleted emails.
'I have a feeling they just found a lot of them,' he said, before calling out the name of Weiner's estranged wife Abedin.
'Huma! They just found a lot of them!' he boomed. 'We never thought we were going to say "Thank you" to Anthony Weiner!'
Abedin is seen leaving the campaign
headquarters with a member of Clinton's team who has previously been
seen with her son, Jordan
Abedin stepped out of the offices and
hopped into a SUV to head back to a Manhattan apartment where she has
holed up on Saturday night
A
day earlier in Arizona, the real estate billionaire used the 'pervert'
Weiner's proximity to power as Exhibit A in his case that the Clintons
have poor judgment and can't be trusted with the levers of power.
'As
Podesta said, she's got bad instincts,' he said, quoting Clinton
campaign chairman John Podesta's stinging admission in a hacked email
published by the WikiLeaks anti-privacy group.
The
latest revelations leaves the Clinton campaign facing disaster after
FBI director James Comey announced their discovery had led him to reopen
the investigation into Clinton with 11 days until the election.
The
latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll taken after Comey's
announcement shows Trump is just one point behind Clinton, with 45 per
cent support to her 46 per cent.
Last
week, Clinton was up 12 points, meaning that she lost a double-digit
lead in a week's time. A third of the likely voters polled said they
were less likely to cast a vote for Clinton because of this additional
email probe.
Abedin is seen arriving at Clinton's
campaign headquarters in Brooklyn on Sunday while Hillary continued on
the campaign trail in Florida
She emerged after
spending Saturday night hiding in her Manhattan apartment as the
scandal over her husband Anthony Weiner's laptop continue to unfold
Abedin stepped out as latest poll
results showed the gap between Trump and Hillary had closed to just one
point - with a third of voters saying the FBI's revelations had impacted
their support for the Democratic candidate
Government lawyers have not approached Abedin's camp, but could do so in the coming days.
Agents
from the FBI New York field office stumbled on what they thought were
pertinent emails when they were searching the laptop during their
sexting investigation.
Many, reports suggests, were from Abedin's accounts, according to people familiar with the matter.
They stopped the search and immediately called in Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s second-in-command, the Wall Street Journal reported. The laptop hadn't previously been investigated as part of the Clinton probe.
They
had a subpoena for Weiner's laptop, but it only related to his emails,
not Abedin's. So the FBI needed new approval to broaden its search.
In
their initial review of the laptop, agents reportedly found metadata
showing many messages - apparently in the thousands - were either sent
to or from the private email server at Clinton’s home. They received
'positive hits for state.gov and HRC emails', a source told Fox News.
There
is a chance some of the emails could be duplicates of those they have
already seen, but investigators could also find it is a trove of
messages Clinton deleted from her server.
Clinton’s
aides are urging her to distance herself from Abedin, who has been her
aide for more than a decade and who she regards as almost a daughter,
according to the New York Times.
Clinton talks with campaign advisor
Darren Peters after greeting supporters at an early voting brunch at
Fado Irish Pub in Miami, Florida on Sunday
Clinton did not mention Abedin or the growing scandal as she addressed reporters gathered for a voter brunch
Clinton is facing the prospect of an ongoing FBI investigation even if she is elected President next week
Abedin told colleagues she has no idea how the emails ended up on her husband's computer, and insists she rarely used it. The Washington Post also reported that her lawyers didn't hand over the device because they didn't think it contained any of her emails.
On
Sunday morning Clinton arrived at Fado’s, an Irish pub in downtown
Miami, to greet about 40 Democrats attending what the campaign said was
an early voting brunch sponsored by two local Democratic groups, the
Miami-Dade Young Democrats and the Miami Downtown Democrats.
She briefly spoke to the crowd, but did not mention Abedin, or the latest scandal that has engulfed the campaign.
Also on Sunday, bestselling author Ed Klein wrote in an article for DailyMail.com that
James Comey's decision to revive the investigation of Clinton's email
server came after he could no longer resist mounting pressure by
mutinous agents in the FBI, including some of his top deputies.
'The
atmosphere at the FBI has been toxic ever since Jim announced last July
that he wouldn't recommend an indictment against Hillary,' said the
source - a close friend who has known Comey for nearly two decades,
shares family outings with him, and accompanies him to Catholic mass
every week.
'Some
people, including department heads, stopped talking to Jim, and even
ignored his greetings when they passed him in the hall,' said the
source. 'They felt that he betrayed them and brought disgrace on the
bureau by letting Hillary off with a slap on the wrist.'
According to the source, Comey fretted over the problem for months and discussed it at great length with his wife, Patrice.
He
told his wife that he was depressed by the stack of resignation letters
piling up on his desk from disaffected agents. The letters reminded him
every day that morale in the FBI had hit rock bottom.
On
Saturday night, Clinton looked to crank up her celebrity appeal by
appearing alongside Jennifer Lopez on stage in downtown Miami.
Abedin
missed the star-studded concert, and instead remained holed up in her
New York City apartment on Saturday night, a day after her husband's
sexting of a 15-year-old girl, which was exposed by DailyMail.com, led
the FBI to sensationally reopen its investigation into Clinton's
emails.
She could be seen inside her Gramercy Park apartment in loungewear as she spent time with her mother and sister.
Abedin remained home in New York on
Saturday (picturd), after the online sexting habits of her husband,
Anthony Weiner, upended her long-time boss's presidential campaign
Abedin was pictured aboard the
campaign plane with Clinton on Friday before the FBI announced they were
reopening the investigation into the private email server
Weiner's sexting investigation is a serious blow to Clinton's campaign in the tightening presidential race.
Reports say agents found thousands of emails on the shared laptop that merit further investigation.
When
Clinton was Secretary of State, Abedin had email accounts on the State
Department server, Hillary's controversial private server and Yahoo.
Conflicting
reports suggest the emails could either have been sent from Abedin to
Clinton, forwarded between Abedin's accounts so she could more easily
print them off, or duplicates of emails already investigated by the FBI
earlier this year.
As
she stayed off the campaign trail in one of the campaign’s critical
final days, Abedin may have to contend with some of her sworn statements
in a lawsuit, when she was asked how she went about searching for
records she turned over to the State Department.
‘I
looked for all the devices that may have any of my State Department
work on it and returned — returned — gave them to my attorneys for them
to review for all relevant documents. And gave them devices and paper,’
Abedin said in a sworn deposition on June 28, 2016.
Asked
what devices she handed over, Abedin replied: ‘If memory serves me
correctly, it was two laptops, a BlackBerry, and some files that I found
in my apartment.'
The devices were requested as part of a lawsuit by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch and were later reviewed by the FBI.
Abedin pictured with her estranged husband at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala in May
Abedin
then told Judicial Watch attorney Ramona Cotca that she was 'not
involved in the process' of selecting what documents on her devices
would be given to the State Department.
She
said she asked her attorneys 'to find whatever they thought was
relevant and appropriate, whatever was their determination as to what
was a federal record'.
'And they did,' she added. 'They turned the materials in, and I know they did.'
Abedin,
one of Clinton's most trusted aides, said she conducted 'the majority'
of her work at her computer and Blackberry but also gave her attorneys
the login and password to her personal 'Clintonmail.com' account.
She
said she relied on her State Department email for the 'vast majority'
of her work, but admitted there were occasions she used the
Clintonmail.com account for 'State-related matters'.
As
the controversy swirled, Clinton traveled without Abedin to Daytona
Beach, Florida where she was forced to address the issue and took her
war against Comey right to her own supporters during a rally.
'If you're like me, you probably have a few questions about it,' she told a crowd of about 900 at a community center.
'It
is pretty strange. It's pretty strange to put something like that out
with such little information, right before an election,' Clinton said.
The crowd booed at the first mention of the FBI issue.
'In fact, it's not just strange it's unprecedented and it's deeply troubling,' Clinton said.
Clinton
first went after Comey on Friday in a surprise press conference just
hours after the news broke - days before the November 8 election.
'Voters
deserve to get full and complete facts. And so we call on Director
Comey to explain everything right away,' she said, calling out Comey by
name.
She urged him to 'put it all out on the table.'
Then
she turned her fire on Donald Trump, whom she said was 'already making
up lies' as he took advantage of the issue at his own rallies,
speculating about Clinton, the Justice Department, Abedin, and Weiner,
who he branded a 'sleaze.'
'He's
doing his best to confuse, mislead and discourage the American people,'
Clinton said. 'I think it's time for Donald Trump to stop
fear-mongering.'
Clinton
flew to Daytona Beach and campaigned in Volusia County as part of her
all-out effort to stop Trump in a must-win state for him – but was
compelled to address the controversy that has upended her campaign.
Mitt Romney won the county in 2012, though it was in the Democratic column for several previous elections.
Meanwhile, as the controversy swirls, Clinton continues to go about the business of retail politics.
When she landed in Daytona Beach, a small group greeted her with a campaign sign.
Ditching protocol, Clinton walked up to them, and greeted and shook hands with the entire group.
Later, she went to a tailgate party with students at Bethune-Cookman University.
Clinton
took the stage at the event and declared: 'I just want to encourage all
the students who are here today, plus all the alumni who are here… to
get out and vote early.'
Later, she went to the 50 yard line of Daytona's Municipal Stadium.
'This
election is about education, it's about the future of the… historically
black colleges and universities, and I promise you I will do my very
best to build on the progress, the progress of President Obama,' she
said to cheers.
'This
election is one of the most important in our country's history because
everything you care about, everything I care about is really on the
ballot and we've got to demonstrate that we're going to build a future
where the economy works for everybody, not just those at the top,' she
said.
Clinton continues to go about the
business of retail politics. When she landed in Daytona Beach, a small
group greeted her with a campaign sign
Clinton greets tailgaters at the Bethune-Cookman University Wildcats homecoming football game in Daytona Beach, Florida
'I
promise you that I will be your partner, I will work with you, I will
work for you, every single day in the White House, and we're going to
prove once and for all that love trumps hate,' she said.
The
Clinton campaign has suggested that the new-found emails are
duplicates, but the law enforcement source said it's highly unlikely
that all of them are.
When
news emerged of the email investigation being reopened, a campaign aide
said that Clinton 'took the news like a champ. We always knew there'd
be a another surprise in the election.
'She's in a very good frame of mind about it. Pretty happy warrior and is quite confident we'll be able to deal with it.'
On
Saturday, Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, said Comey's move
to reexamine Clinton emails was 'long on innuendo and short on facts,'
calling the reporting on the stunning developments in the presidential
race 'overblown'.
Clinton was campaigning in Daytona - a
county where Mitt Romney won in 2012, though it was in the Democratic
column for several previous elections
'Despite
initial reporting the letter amounted to a quote unquote reopening of
the investigation … it seems that that is not at all the case,' fumed
Podesta on a campaign press call with reporters.
Podesta
blasted House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Jason
Chaffetz of Utah, saying: 'This is someone who has already promised to
launch years of new Hillary Clinton investigations when she's
president.'
He referenced an LA Times report that emails the FBI was looking at were not to or from Clinton.
'It's had to see how this amounts to anything,' Podesta said, stressing the last minute nature of the campaign bombshell.
'Comey
has not been forthcoming with the facts,' Podesta blustered. 'What
little told us: hard to understand why this was warranted at all.'
Podesta said they are 'standing' behind Abedin, following the latest revelation into the Clinton email scandal.
'Huma completely and voluntarily complied with and cooperated with the investigation,' Podesta said.
'She
sat for a hours long interview. She turned over and went through with
her lawyers all of the emails that might possibly be relevant and turned
them over to the state department and investigators.
'There's absolutely nothing she's done that we think calls into question anything that she's done.
'She's been fully cooperating and we of course stand behind her.'
On Friday, Comey sent a letter to
Congress to inform them about the reopening of the investigation into
Hillary Clinton's (above on Saturday) private email server based on
newly discovered emails, rocking Clinton's campaign
Campaign manager Robby Mook said the stunning FBI story is actually ginning up Clinton supporters.
'We're not just seeing this in our offices on the ground but also in the online space as well,' he said.
'We
already had momentum and wind behind our back going into yesterday this
has only increased the momentum that we're feeling among our activists
on the ground.'
Republican Donald Trump had a field day with the latest developments as he campaigned out west.
'Her
criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful,'
Trump said in an agricultural event center in Golden, Colorado. 'Hillary
set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her
criminal conduct from public disclosure and exposure.'
Then he went after Abedin's spouse, disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, calling him 'a major, major, major sleaze'.
'I wonder, is she going to keep Huma? Huma's been a problem,' Trump said.
'I wonder if Huma's going to stay there. And I hope they haven't given Huma immunity.'
This is the internal memo obtained by
Fox News that Comey sent out. He noted he felt an 'obligation' to inform
lawmakers about the investigation given he had testified repeatedly in
recent months that the investigation was completed
'She knows the real story. She knows what's going on,' he said.
During
her press conference on Friday, Clinton called on the FBI to release
whatever information it has about its restarted investigation of her
email scandal 'without delay'.
And
she said she did not know 'what to believe' regarding what she called
'rumors' that the new information came from Abedin's laptop – a device
she reportedly shared with Weiner.
'We
are 11 days out from perhaps the most important election of our
lifetimes,' Clinton told reporters in a surprise press conference.
'The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.'
'We've heard these rumors,' said Clinton – who sat near Abedin on her campaign on the flight to Des Moines.
'We
don't know what to believe and I'm sure there will be even more rumors.
That's why it is incumbent upon the FBI to tell us what they're talking
about,' she said.
'Because right now your guess is as good as mine and I don't think that's good enough.'
Clinton
gave the press conference inside the choral room of Roosevelt High
School in Des Moines – where she held an event meant to stress women's
issues and early vote efforts and where she ignored the growing crisis
engulfing her campaign.
But
her traveling press was fixated completely on the stunning FBI story,
which comes after the bureau sensationally reopened their investigation
into her secret server after they discovered email exchanges between her
and Abedin on the device.
Asked
if she had been contacted by the FBI or whether she was concerned that
the new emails would reveal any classified information, Clinton
responded to the first part of the question.
'No
– we have not been contacted by anyone. First we knew about it is I
assume when you knew about it, when this letter sent to Republican
members of the House was released.
'So we don't know the facts, which is why we are calling on the FBI to release all the information that it has.'
'Lets get it out,' she said.
She observed that FBI director James Comey had said the new information concerning the emails may not be significant.
Clinton's
campaign was outraged and implied that Comey's intervention could be
politically-tinged because, in Clinton's words, the letter was only sent
to 'Republican members of the House.'
She also declared herself 'confident' that voters, and the FBI, would conclude that she had done nothing wrong.
Her
defiant words came after Trump - himself dogged by scandal over his
alleged sexual misconduct - made hay, declaring Clinton unfit for office
as a jubilant crowd of supporters in New Hampshire chanted: 'Lock her
up!'
Concern
that the renewed probe would damage Clinton's formerly impressive
momentum spooked the markets, with US stocks, the dollar and oil prices
tumbling lower on the prospect of a close vote.
Clinton noted that Comey had said he himself does not know whether the emails are significant or not.
'I'm confident, whatever they are, they will not change the conclusion reached in July,' she added.
The Republican presidential nominee
renewed his attacks on the disgraced former Democratic congressman
Anthony Weiner as well, calling him 'a major, major, major sleaze'
Opportunity knocks: Donald Trump says
Hillary Clinton has nobody to blame but herself for her mounting legal
troubles after the FBI reopened their investigation into her emails
THE TALE OF HILLARY CLINTON'S PRIVATE SERVER
The Clintons' Chappaqua home where the server began life
June 2008: An
Apple Power Mac server, purchased by Bill Clinton's aide Justin Cooper
in 2007, is installed in the basement of the Clintons' home in
Chappaqua, New York. It initially handles traffic for Bill Clinton but
soon is used by Clinton and her staff as well
Fall:
Computer equipment from Clinton's presidential campaign is tapped as a
replacement - a Dell PowerEdge 2900 Windows Server and Microsoft
Exchange and a 1950 running a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Clinton aide
Bryan Pagliano starts work on building the system, believing it will be
used by Bill Clinton's staff
January 2009: It is decided that the Apple server must be replaced as it is having problems with the volume of traffic
March:
Pagliano installs the server he has built in a rack in the Chappaqua
house basement, with the help of Cooper. Pagliano, who is administrator
for the new device, transfers the Apple server emails onto the new
device. The new server is backed up once a week onto a Seagate external
hard drive. The FBI has never obtained the Apple server for examination
January
2013: Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryll Mills, recommends Denver,
Colorado-based IT firm Platte River Networks (PRN) to manage the server
to help with user limitations and reliability concerns
Denver-based Platte held a 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'-themed party while at a conference
June
23: A Platte employee removes the server from the Chappaqua home to a
data center in Secaucus, New Jersey, run by Equinix, to migrate it to a
new server
June 30: The Clintons' email accounts are migrated to the Platte server
July
18: Platte signs an agreement to manage the new, third server, a Dell
PowerEdge R620. Platte subsequently configure a backup device from
Datto, Inc, a Connecticut-based company, to take multiple snapshots of
the system daily and to store the information for 60 days. The device
also takes copies of the Pagliano server between June 24-December 23
December 2013: The Pagliano server is fully decommissioned
December 2014: Clinton and Abedin begin using the domain hrcoffice and stop using clintonemail.com
October 3, 2015: The Pagliano server is voluntarily handed over to the FBI
Read more:
- Abedin-Weiner electronic device was laptop, had tens-of-thousands of emails, source | Fox News
- Exclusive: FBI still does not have warrant to review new Abedin emails linked to Clinton probe
- www.nytimes.com/...
- Clinton and Trump Even Up; Turnout Looks to be Critical (POLL) - ABC News
- Clinton aide Huma Abedin has told people she doesn¿t know how her emails wound up on her husband¿s computer - The Washington Post
- Justice Department, Abedin lawyers in talks to permit email search - CNNPolitics.com
- Laptop May Include Thousands of Emails Linked to Hillary Clinton¿s Private Server - WSJ
- FBI Obtains Warrant for Newly Discovered Emails in Clinton Probe ¿ as Reid Accuses Comey of Hatch Act Violation - NBC News
- Laptop in FBI's Weiner sexting case had 'state.gov,' Clinton-related emails, source says | Fox News
- Why FBI Director Comey jumped at chance to reopen Hillary Clinton email investigation | Daily Mail Online
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