Less than two weeks before Election Day, the Trump campaign is using the news the that FBI wants to look at a Hillary Clinton aide’s newly discovered emails in a renewed push to discredit Clinton.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway made that case during a Sunday morning interview on Fox News, speculating that emails found on a computer Clinton aide Huma Abedin shared with estranged husband Anthony Weiner contain “explosive information.”
.@KellyannePolls: "I just think that [Comey] had new explosive information that compelled him to come forward.” pic.twitter.com/xQXCQdyk2x
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 30, 2016
Conway has no basis for that claim. CNN reported Sunday afternoon that “government lawyers haven’t yet approached Abedin’s lawyers to seek an agreement to conduct the search,” meaning investigators haven’t even yet read the emails. The FBI hasn’t indicated there’s anything incriminating in them.
During a Sunday Fox News appearance, Brunell Donald-Kyei, vice-chair of diversity outreach for the Trump campaign, asserted feds are convening a grand jury to investigate Clinton — something that would surely not happen before investigators obtain a warrant to actually read Abedin’s emails.
.@brunelldonald: ""Believe me: They are convening a grand jury. Trust me." pic.twitter.com/ODRfR8pBHR
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 30, 2016
Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald, citing an anonymous government official “with knowledge of the investigation,” reports that the emails, which were discovered during an unrelated investigation into Weiner’s sexting with an underage girl, likely don’t contain incriminating information.
There is no indication the emails in question were withheld by Clinton during the investigation, the law enforcement official told Newsweek, nor does the discovery suggest she did anything illegal. Also, none of the emails were to or from Clinton, the official said. Moreover, despite the widespread claims in the media that this development had prompted the FBI to “reopen” the case, it did not; such investigations are never actually closed, and it is common for law enforcement to discover new information that needs to be examined.
But Trump has also seized upon the news to hammer Clinton at his rallies.
“Hillary has nobody but herself to blame for her mounting legal problems,” Trump said Sunday in Las Vegas. “Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful.”
The Justice Department determined Clinton’s email conduct wasn’t criminal in July, but Trump asserted Sunday that the DOJ’s decision was part of a conspiracy.
Trump accuses Clinton/DOJ of bribery, says Clinton has publicly promised Lynch reappointment as Attorney General: pic.twitter.com/ukhbAxj1Ol
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 30, 2016
Clinton hasn’t addressed the email news this weekend, but on Sunday, her campaign released a video trying to quell the controversy.
“FBI Director James Comey released to Congress an unbelievably vague letter that was light on facts and heavy on innuendo, and it only serves to give Republicans a new line of attack against Hillary Clinton,” Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon says. “But the more information that has come out, the more overblown this all seems, and the more concern it has created about Director Comey’s actions.”
On Saturday, multiple outlets reported that Comey acted against the directives of DOJ officials when he sent a letter to members of Congress about the emails on Friday, igniting the political firestorm that raged throughout the weekend.