{"id":263557,"date":"2016-10-31T08:23:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T08:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=263557"},"modified":"2016-10-31T08:23:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T08:23:51","slug":"fbi-chief-may-have-broken-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/10\/fbi-chief-may-have-broken-law\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI chief ‘may have broken law’"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Democratic leader in the US Senate says the head of the FBI may have broken the law by revealing the bureau was investigating emails possibly linked to Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n
Harry Reid accused FBI director James Comey of violating an act which bars officials from influencing an election.<\/p>\n
News of the FBI inquiry comes less than two weeks before the US election.<\/p>\n
The bureau has meanwhile obtained a warrant to search a cache of emails belonging to a top Clinton aide.<\/p>\n
Emails from Huma Abedin are believed to have been found on the laptop of her estranged husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner.<\/p>\n
There are reportedly 650,000 emails to search through, making it unlikely investigators can give a verdict on them before election day.<\/p>\n
The FBI believes the emails might be “pertinent” to its previous inquiry into Mrs Clinton’s use of a private server when she was secretary of state in the Obama administration.<\/p>\n
The case was closed in July without any charges being brought against Mrs Clinton.<\/p>\n
Mr Weiner is subject to a separate investigation on suspicion of sending sexually explicit messages to an underage girl.<\/p>\n
‘Partisan actions’<\/strong><\/p>\n In a letter, Mr Reid accused Mr Comey of practising double standards with the intention of helping one political party over another.<\/p>\n He said Mr Comey may have violated the Hatch Act, which bars officials from using their position to influence an election.<\/p>\n “Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law,” he said.<\/p>\n Mr Reid also accused Mr Comey of withholding “explosive information about close ties between [Republican candidate] Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government”.<\/p>\n “The public has a right to know about this information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public,” Mr Reid said.<\/p>\n Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, revealed on Sunday he had filed a complaint against the FBI with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations.<\/p>\n Writing in the New York Times he said: “I never thought that the FBI could be dragged into a political circus surrounding one of its investigations. Until this week.”<\/p>\n Race gets closer<\/strong><\/p>\n With the election due on 8 November, opinion polls showed Mrs Clinton’s lead against Mr Trump tightening even before the email controversy surfaced again.<\/p>\n An ABC News\/Washington Post poll published on Sunday put Mrs Clinton just one percentage point ahead.<\/p>\n Mrs Clinton has described Mr Comey’s actions as “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling”.<\/p>\n But Mr Trump has praised the FBI’s decision, accusing the Department of Justice of protecting Mrs Clinton in a “rigged system”.<\/p>\n “The Department of Justice is trying their hardest to protect the criminal activity of Hillary Clinton,” Mr Trump told a rally in Nevada.<\/p>\n It emerged on Sunday that the Department of Justice had urged the FBI not to inform Congress of the new inquiry so close to the election.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n