Comey’s move capped a stunning chapter in the bitter, deeply divisive contest between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. That lead has now been reduced to a thin single-digit lead.
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However, last Sunday, Comey sent another letter to the same members of Congress telling them that after the agency went through the 650,000 emails, seized from the laptop of Clinton staffer Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, it was decided that no new conclusions came out of the second examination. “Clinton, actually helped to bolster Trump’s turnout”.
He said some agents disapprove of Comey’s handling of the investigation and think he should resign, while others support him, but do not appreciate being in a political crossfire. The FBI and the Justice Department have a long-standing policy to avoid making any announcements that could potentially affect the election less than 60 days before an election. Trump’s team “knew they got lucky with Comey”.
The FBI’s clearing of Hillary Clinton sent global equities soaring and helped the U.S. dollar recover against a basket of other major currencies.
But Clinton looked giddy as she took the stage with her family in a college gymnasium, her arms pinwheeling in a mock jogging motion as she strode into the arms of Lady Gaga and Jon Bon Jovi, the final two singers who lent their voices and star power to her candidacy. In the nine days between Comey’s initial statement and his “all clear” announcement, almost 24 million people cast early ballots.
“We know enough about my opponent, we know who he is”, Clinton said, addressing tens of thousands of people sprawled across Philadelphia’s Independence Mall.
The first letter’s impact on the election will also be more because apart from shifting focus on the email scandal, it also diverted attention from the various sexual assault allegations made against Trump.
“Today, there is a perception among the American people that the FBI and DOJ’s actions during the Clinton investigation have tarnished their time-honored reputations for fair and equal application of the law”.
Still, Clinton had appeared to be heading for a sweeping victory before Comey’s first letter to lawmakers, in which he stressed the Federal Bureau of Investigation could not yet assess “whether or not this material may be significant”, or how long it might take to run down the new investigative leads.
Republican presidential nominee Mike Pence, at a rally in North Carolina on Monday, said Clinton violated the law, no matter what Comey found in his rapid review. And he is partially right.
“Your two most recent letters to the Committee leave several unanswered questions about this new material and the FBI’s review of it”, Johnson wrote in the letter sent Monday.
Paul Begala, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, told CNN that blaming Comey was like thinking a faulty washing machine was to blame when an natural disaster rocks your house. Giuliani served as the Justice Department’s third highest-ranking official under President Ronald Reagan. She said nothing about other, larger forces at work – Trump’s message of change in a restive time, his pledge to represent the aggrieved working class, the difficulty of any political party winning a third consecutive presidential term, her own limited attention to economic anxiety or the sexism and discomfort that surrounded her attempt to become the first female president.
In fact, former USA attorney general Eric Holder wrote an article in The Washington Post titled ‘James Comey is a good man, but he made a serious mistake’.
Meanwhile, a CBS poll taken after the news came out found that in 13 battleground states, 71 percent of respondents either say the news won’t change their vote or that they’ve already voted.
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Depending on who wins Tuesday, Comey will have to co-exist with either a Republican president who has challenged his organization’s integrity or a Democrat whose email practices were the subject of a criminal investigation.
