October 28, 2016•Update: October 29, 2016
NEW YORK
The FBI is reviewing new emails linked to Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, the bureau’s director James Comey said in a letter Friday.
"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation," Comey wrote to Congress. "I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."
Media reports suggest the new batch of emails come from the phones of Clinton aide Human Abedin and her scandal-hit husband Anthony Weiner.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said President Barack Obama wants the FBI to make decisions "irrespective of politics".
"[The] president's expectation is that all FBI efforts follow the facts wherever they lead," Schultz said.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Friday the agency stood ready to "cooperate to the fullest extent we can" with the investigation, and that it learned of the relaunch of the investigation "when we saw news reports of the letter".
Comey dismissed pressure last month to reopen the controversial emails probe after recommending no charges for the Democratic presidential nominee -- despite describing her as “extremely careless” at the end of a months-long FBI probe in July.
After announcing his decision not to pursue charges, Comey endured a grilling from House Republicans in a make-or-break moment for Clinton’s bid for the Oval Office.
Abedin and Weiner separated in late August after Weiner's name was embroiled in a new sexting scandal following the two similar controversies that cost him his seat in Congress and a New York City mayoral bid.
Neither Clinton nor her Republican rival Donald Trump has yet to comment on the latest development, while Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is seeking reelection, welcomed the "long overdue" decision and demanded she be barred from intelligence reports.
Clinton "was entrusted with some of our nation's most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information", Ryan said. "I renew my call for the director of national intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved."
The emails controversy has become the achilles’ heel of the Democratic campaign since it was revealed that the 2009-2013 Secretary of State was using her private email server to correspond with State Department staff, potentially exposing classified information.
After saying she did nothing wrong, Clinton eventually apologized and defended herself on numerous occasions, including during the presidential debates, by saying that there were no emails marked as classified on her server, and there was no evidence that the server had been compromised.
During the last debate, Trump harped on Clinton for deleting thousands of emails and threatening legal action against her if he becomes president.
The controversy has once again been reignited at a time Clinton is pulling ahead in many polls after a series of scandalous revelations and allegations against Trump deflated his momentum in September.
