Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pauses while speaking at a rally at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday, Oct. 28.
(AP)
Hillary Clinton embarks this weekend on the frenetic final 10 days of her White House campaign, determined to shake off renewed controversy over the FBI probe into her private emails.
The 69-year-old Democrat — vying to become America’s first female president — is still the frontrunner to win the November 8 election over her Republican rival Donald Trump.
Clinton has a clear lead in the polls, and voting has already begun in 34 of 50 states to choose a successor to President Barack Obama, who will hit the campaign trail again next week in defense of his onetime secretary of state.
But her momentum was threatened Friday by a renewed eruption in a scandal that has long dogged her in the race: investigations into her use of a private email server while at the State Department.
Trump gleefully seized on news that FBI agents are investigating a newly discovered group of mails sent to Clinton’s private address, to see if they exposed any US secrets.
The probe had been thought finished in July, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation had recommended that no charges be filed against Clinton, although it found her to have been “extremely careless” in her use of a private server.
But FBI Director James Comey’s letter to US lawmakers announcing that inquiries had been renewed, shocked the campaign and rocked world markets.
Clinton cried foul, demanding that Comey reveal more information about the probe, and declared herself “confident” that voters, and the FBI, would conclude that she had done nothing wrong.
“The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” she said. “We don’t know the facts, which is why we are calling on the FBI to release all the information that it has.”
Clinton’s defiant words came after Trump — himself dogged by scandal over alleged sexual misconduct — declared her 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.
Comey dropped his bombshell in a letter to lawmakers, revealing that “in connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” and would take “appropriate investigative steps.”
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.” “I’m confident, whatever they are, they will not change the conclusion reached in July,” she added.
According to the New York Times, the newly discovered mails emerged after agents seized electronic devices used by Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, Anthony Weiner.