Hillary Clinton Email Probe Update: FBI Finally Questions Clinton As Investigation Nears Conclusion


Hillary Clinton’s email probe took an interesting turn early Saturday morning as reports emerged that the Democratic presumptive nominee finally met with FBI investigators after weeks of speculation surrounding the tentative date for the meeting.

A source close to the investigation had earlier told the Daily Caller that the former secretary of State was scheduled to meet with the FBI on Saturday, and USA Today now confirms that the Democratic presumptive nominee met with FBI investigators at the bureau’s headquarters in downtown Washington in a meeting that lasted almost four hours.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign spokesman Nick Merrill confirmed the meeting in a statement, but refused to divulge more details about the interview.

“Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was secretary. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview.”

This meeting had long been touted as the inevitable end to a long series of interviews and depositions that FBI investigators have conducted with former aides of Hillary Clinton, including her former chief of staff Cheryl Mills, her deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, and her former IT chief Bryan Pagliano, who has been granted immunity deals in exchange for information about Clinton’s now infamous private home server.

It was earlier reported that the FBI was working hard to conclude the investigation before the Democratic National Convention, should the bureau intend to press charges against the former secretary of State. The Hill reports that the timing of the interview — three weeks before the convention in Philadelphia — suggests that the FBI is nearing the conclusion of its investigation.

If FBI were to press charges against Hillary Clinton after the conclusion of the interview — and subsequently the investigation — Washington could brace itself for a political storm that could still hugely impact the run-in to the presidential race.

This piece of news comes a day after Attorney General Loretta Lynch confirmed that she would be willing to accept whatever recommendations FBI investigators and career prosecutors make in Hillary Clinton’s email probe, according to the New York Times.

“This case will be resolved by the team that has been working on it from the beginning,” Lynch said on Friday, after she received a lot of stick, both from Republicans and Democrats, for her “impromptu” meeting with Hillary Clinton’s husband, and former president, Bill Clinton at a Phoenix airport.

“Supervisors always review matters. In this case, that review will be career people in the Department of Justice, and also the FBI will review it, up to and including the FBI director.”

That announcement certainly put FBI Director James Comey in the driver’s seat, and while the prosecutors at Lynch’s office will still decide whether or not to press ahead with the charges, legal experts agree that Comey has been granted a free hand to steer the investigation in the direction he prefers. Moreover, Comey’s reputation as a well-respected but tough-minded maverick might give Democrats some headache as to the outcome of the probe. Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director and president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said that Comey has become the public face of the investigation.

“Comey is the center of gravity on this thing. There is a growing expectation that we the public need to hear the FBI, Jim Comey version of whether or not charges will be brought. There has probably been increasing recognition by [Loretta Lynch] that that’s true, that she is viewed as — regardless of her prior reputation as an effective prosecutor — she’s now the head of Obama’s DOJ, a political position in a Democratic administration that is deciding on the prosecution or not of the leading Democratic candidate.”

It would be interesting to see the direction the probe heads to after FBI investigators met with Hillary Clinton early Saturday, but in light of the latest development, it would not be inappropriate to assume that the bureau has its eyes set on concluding the investigation before Hillary Clinton is officially made the Democratic nominee at the Philadelphia convention.

[Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images]

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