FBI’s Hillary Clinton Investigation Unearths Nearly 15,000 New Documents, Federal Judge Orders Quick Release
The FBI has said it discovered nearly 15,000 documents previously unreleased during the course of its investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal email server, according to reports.
The FBI’s Hillary Clinton investigation has been ongoing for more than a year. While the FBI’s Hillary Clinton investigation did not result in criminal charges against the former first lady and secretary of state, the fact that more information keeps dripping out of the investigation as Election Day draws near could not be comforting to the Democratic nominee or her staff of advisors.
According to the Washington Post, the FBI’s Hillary Clinton investigation found some 14,900 documents, though they are not being called emails at this time.
“Justice Department lawyers said last week that the State Department would review and turn over Clinton’s work-related emails to a conservative legal group. The records are among ‘tens of thousands’ of documents found by the FBI in its probe and turned over to the State Department, Justice Department attorney Lisa Ann Olson said Monday in court.
“The 14,900 Clinton documents are nearly 50 percent more than the roughly 30,000 emails that Clinton’s lawyers deemed work-related and returned to the department in December 2014.”
A hearing on the documents, tied to a federal lawsuit against Clinton by a conservative watchdog group, turned heated Monday (August 22), according to CBS News. The television outlet reported that the judge grew impatient with State Department attorneys during the hearing.
“Initially, the State Department attorney would not answer Judge James Boasberg’s repeated questions about the number of emails recovered by the FBI,” CBS News reported. “The judge urged the State Department to expedite its review of what is called ‘Disc 1,’ which is one of two discs handed over from FBI to the State Department in late July.”
Should the files be released in a timely fashion, it could mean that the FBI’s Hillary Clinton investigation could continue to be a lingering headache for Clinton during the 11 remaining weeks of her second run for the White House. Bloomberg reports the documents are supposed to be released by September 22 at the demand of the federal judge, meaning the documents could become fodder for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump just in time for the three presidential debates to be held in October.
To show just how heated the hearing on the FBI’s Hillary Clinton investigation documents became, Bloomberg quoted the federal judge as asking State Department attorneys, “What have they been doing for the past four weeks?”
The FBI’s Hillary Clinton investigation wrapped up last month, with FBI Director James Comey delivering a scathing statement about Clinton’s recklessness with documents and communications during her one term as secretary of state under President Barack Obama.
In spite of the harsh words, Comey said the investigation of Clinton turned up no blatantly illegal actions by the then-secretary of state. For that reason, Comey said he declined to press charges against Clinton for her use of the private email server.
CBS News reports that while the FBI’s Hillary Clinton investigation is still causing her problems, the Democratic nominee has scored at last one minor victory in her fight with conservative watchdog Judicial Watch.
“On Friday Clinton scored a minor victory against Judicial Watch when a judge said she could answer questions from Judicial Watch lawyers in writing and did not have to be deposed. Her answers are not due until after the election.”
Real Clear Politics reports that Hillary Clinton is still polling well despite the FBI investigation and its continuing controversies, with a polling average showing her 5.5 percent ahead of Republican Donald Trump (as of August 22, 2016) and holding 272 electoral votes more than 11 weeks before election day, enough to secure the White House.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
