Over 650,000 e-mails have been found on a laptop shared by Hillary Clinton’s close aide and her husband as the Democratic presidential nominee’s woes escalated just over a week before the election with the FBI set to review the newly-discovered data.
The FBI had received the necessary search warrant yesterday to look into the e-mails belonging to Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin as part of the re-opened investigation into the case of use of a personal e-mail hosted on a private server by the former secretary of state in the first term of the Obama Administration, media reports said.
Such a large number of e-mails have been found on the laptop which was shared by a former Congressman Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife Abedin.
Abedin was a key individual investigated into the alleged e-mail scandal of Clinton. Among others, she testified before a Congressional Committee.
The FBI came across these e-mails while investigating into a sexting case of Weiner, following which the FBI Director James Comey informed the Congress that it is reopening the investigation on Clinton which it has closed three months ago.
The Clinton campaign has questioned the motive behind such a move.
Clinton’s rival Donald Trump had yesterday said that the finding of such a large number of e-mails could be motherload.
“This could be the motherload, you know? This could be the 33,000 that are missing. This could be the 20,000 that are missing. This could be the 15,000 that are missing,” he said, referring to e-mails that were deleted from the server before the FBI could see them.
Armed with the search warrant, FBI will now examine e-mails belonging to Abedin to see if they have anything to do with the original Clinton investigation.
The Clinton Campaign reiterated its demand that FBI release all information related to the case.
At an election rally in Michigan, the Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said it was “unusual” that something that is all speculation would be released right before an election.
As such he called on the FBI to “put all the details out for the American public” so they can have the full information and decide for themselves.
“Just put the information out there so we can put this to rest. This campaign is supposed to be about the American people and their lives and what the next president is going to do for them. This is clouding our ability to talk about this,” Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook told NBC News.
Mook said Abedin fully cooperated with the investigation.
Senate Minority leader Harry Reid said Comey may have violated a federal law when he disclosed, less than two weeks before the presidential election, that his office was pursuing potential new evidence related Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.