FBI: Newly Discovered Emails Were Not Sent To Or From Clinton

FBI Director James Comey

FBI investigators, looking into former Congressman Anthony Weiner's "sexting" scandal, realized that his now-estranged wife Huma Abedin had shared use of a laptop computer. And it turns out, Abedin occasionally used the laptop to email.

Director James Comey took the very unusual tact of writing a letter to members of Congress to let them know of the discovery, and insinuated that some of the emails may (or may not) be of any significance to the Hillary Clinton email case. 

From the L.A. Times:

The emails were not to or from Clinton, and contained information that appeared to be more of what agents had already uncovered, the official said, but in an abundance of caution, they felt they needed to further scrutinize them.

Because Comey had told Congress that the FBI had finished investigating Clinton’s server, he felt he needed to let lawmakers know that agents were looking into the case again in light of the recent discovery, the official said.

Speaking briefly to reporters after an event in Des Moines on Friday, Clinton called on Comey to release more information. She said neither she nor her campaign staff was contacted by the FBI and noted twice that the bureau communicated only with Republican congressional investigators, though Democratic lawmakers also said they were informed by the agency.

"The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately," she said.

The decision to send a letter updating Congress while an investigation is ongoing breaks decades of longstanding Federal practice to not comment on ongoing investigations, or discuss details of concluded investigations.

An anonymous Justice Department official told The New Yorker:

“You don’t do this,” one former senior Justice Department official exclaimed. “It’s aberrational. It violates decades of practice.” The reason, according to the former official, who asked not to be identified because of ongoing cases involving the department, “is because it impugns the integrity and reputation of the candidate, even though there’s no finding by a court, or in this instance even an indictment.”