With polls pointing to a tightening presidential race, Hillary Clinton has virtually challenged FBI Director James Comey by asserting that there is just “no case” for a new probe into her emails controversy even as Republican rival Donald Trump warned of a possible “constitutional crisis” if she were to win the November 8 election.
“I am sure a lot of you may be asking what this new email story is about and why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into the election with no evidence of any wrongdoing with just days to go,” Clinton said at a campaign rally in Ohio, insisting: “There’s no case here.”
Recalling FBI’s finding in July that there was no case against her, the Democratic nominee lamented, “Now they apparently want to look at emails of one of my staffers, and by all means they should look at them, and I am sure they will reach the same conclusion when they looked at my emails for the last year.”
Trump, quick to exploit the situation, commented that Clinton had only herself to blame for her present predicament. “Hillary Clinton wants to blame everyone else for her mounting legal troubles. But she has brought this situation onto herself. She’s got nobody to blame but herself,” he said at his rallies in Michigan.
The Republican nominee, who has called the Clinton email controversy the biggest scandal since Watergate, went on to say that he expects the FBI to find some of the 33,000 emails that she had deleted when it deals with the 6,50,000-odd emails found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
In contrast to the Democratic line of attack, Trump showered praise on the FBI director, saying he has shown guts by ordering the review even as the Justice Department was out to “protect” Clinton.
“I was not his fan. But what he did brought back his reputation,” he remarked.
Clinton’s top aides, meanwhile, took their offensive against Comey to a new level, accusing him of engaging in “blatant double standard” by refusing to call out Russia for “meddling” in the US election through hacking of emails in a bid to influence the race in favour of Trump.
“It is impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double standard,” Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters, adding: “That Director Comey would show more discretion in a matter concerning a foreign state actor than one involving the Democratic nominee for president is nothing short of jaw-dropping.”
The White House sought to keep itself above the fray, with spokesman Josh Earnest making it clear that he would neither defend nor criticise the FBI director’s action.
Significantly, Earnest said President Barack Obama has full confidence in the FBI Director, noting: “The president doesn’t believe that Director Comey is intentionally trying to influence the outcome of an election. The president doesn’t believe that he’s secretly strategising to benefit one candidate or one political party.”
Amid Democrats’ concerns that a delayed conclusion of the renewed probe could badly hurt Clinton, the Department of Justice has sought to assure that the exercise would be completed as expeditiously as possible.
In a letter to senior Congressional leaders, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said the Justice Department “will continue to work closely with the FBI and together, dedicate all necessary resource and take appropriate steps as expeditiously as possible”.