Columns

On October 28, 2016, FBI Director sent a letter to Congress "in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation." The emails were found on a computer used by Huma Abedin, former deputy chief-of-staff to Secretary of State Clinton, and backed up on her husband's (disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner) computer.  

Putting aside Comey's motives for sending such a letter eleven days before the election and nearly four months after Comey said he wouldn't recommend criminal charges because of Clinton's use of the server, his letter is devoid of facts to evaluate the significance of the emails. The letter uses such phrases as "appear to be pertinent" and "we don't know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails." Comey later admitted that the emails had not been reviewed. For all we know, some, most, or all of these emails are duplicates of emails already reviewed by the FBI. Unfortunately, there is not enough time before the election for the FBI to review the emails and to report to the American people their significance, if any. 

Donald Trump is, of course, making hay over Comey's letter, "Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we've never seen before," Trump said at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. "We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office." Trump has said that the FBI "reopened" the investigation giving the implication that a whole new investigation would be conducted by the FBI when in truth, the original investigation was never closed.  

Comey's letter places Clinton in a quandary. The letter was so inartfully worded that Clinton is at a loss to respond to questions about emails she knows nothing about. She forcefully called on the FBI to release the "full and complete facts" about its review. "Voting is underway, so the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately," Clinton said at a brief news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, adding it was "imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay." Likewise both Republicans and Democrats have called on the FBI to quickly reveal more about these newly discovered emails. 

It is only fair that the FBI provide more information in the next several days.