Hillary Clinton’s long-held lead over Donald Trump has suddenly plummeted in new polls following the FBI’s decision last Friday to examine a vast trove of emails found on a computer used by her top aide Huma Abedin’s estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, that may be “pertinent” to the earlier investigation related to Clinton’s controversial use of a private email server.
An ABC News-Washington Post daily tracking poll found that as of Monday morning, Clinton’s lead over Trump had dropped to a mere 1 per cent from 12 per cent a week ago. A RealClearPolitics average of seven national polls put Clinton’s lead at 2.4 per cent -- down from a comfortable 5.6 per cent margin on October 26.
Amid the Clinton campaign’s fears that news of the new probe, regardless of its final outcome, would continue to drive the polls adversely for her, the FBI on Sunday obtained a warrant to search a whopping 650,000-odd emails on Weiner’s laptop that reportedly included “significant amount” of correspondence associated with Clinton and Abedin as well.
Given the sheer volume of emails to be pored over, doubts were being expressed whether the exercise could be completed before the November 8 election. “The process has begun,” a federal law enforcement official said, without indicating how soon the review was expected to be completed. Investigators will see if the newly-discovered emails contain classified information or other evidence related to the Clinton probe that was supposedly concluded in July with FBI Director James Comey ruling out prosecution of the Democratic nominee.
While Clinton aides believe these emails may essentially be duplicates of ones that have already been examined by FBI agents, the Trump campaign believes they could also contain chunks from the 33,000 emails that Clinton had reportedly deleted. Abedin, whose parents are of Indo-Pak stock, has been a top aide of Clinton for the past 21 years.
She had been interviewed in the course of the earlier investigation of Clinton’s email server as well. Even while cooperating with the current probe, Abedin reportedly “seemed surprised” how emails related to her found their way into the computer of Weiner from whom she got separated two months ago.
Comey, the FBI chief, has come under attack from the Clinton campaign and Democrats as a whole for announcing a new probe just 11 days before Election Day, given its potential to influence the result. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid suggested Comey has broken a law and accused him of acting in a partisan manner.
Clinton herself called Comey’s action “strange” and “deeply troubling”. Speaking at a campaign event in Florida, she said: “It is pretty strange — it’s pretty strange — to put something like that out with such little information right before an election. In fact, it is not just strange: It is unprecedented and deeply troubling.”
She also attacked Trump for trying to fish in troubled waters, saying her Republican rival was out to “confuse, mislead and discourage” the voting public.