The FBI has reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state after the discovery of new, relevant emails.
“The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” FBI director James Comey wrote in a letter to a number of lawmakers, including Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
Comey said he was briefed on the matter Thursday, and “agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps … to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information.” He added that “the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant,” nor “how long it will take us to complete this additional work.”
Comey announced in July that the FBI would not recommend prosecuting Clinton after its year-long investigation, despite “evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information” by Clinton and her aides.
“There is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” Comey said at the time.
Of the emails that the Bureau reviewed, 110 emails contained classified information “at the time they were sent or received.” Eight of the email chains contained information at the highest level of classification.
Comey also said that during the course of their investigation, the FBI found thousands of work-related emails that Clinton did not turn over.
Clinton has said that she did not “send or receive any information that was marked classified at the time,” and that emails containing classified information were marked retroactively.
