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Clinton campaign blasts James Comey over 'jaw-dropping' double standards at FBI

Team questioned email investigation amid reports that he sought to withhold evidence of Russian support for Trump for fear of influencing the election

The Clinton campaign blasted the FBI director, James Comey, for “jaw-dropping” double standards on Monday after claims that he had sought to withhold evidence of Russian support for Donald Trump for fear of influencing next week’s US election.

In a sharp escalation of their unprecedented war of words with federal law enforcement authorities, Clinton’s key aides contrasted this apparent caution with Comey’s controversial decision to release new details of its investigation into Clinton’s private email server to lawmakers on Friday.

“It is impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double standard,” her campaign manager, Robby Mook, told reporters, claiming the decision “defied all logic”, especially as other intelligence agencies had favoured disclosure of suspected Russian involvement.

“Through these two decisions he shows he favours acting alone and without consulting … these are not the hallmarks of a responsible investigation,” added Mook.

Both CNBC and the Huffington Post have reported that Comey privately urged against naming Russia for allegedly meddling in the election and hacking Democratic email accounts.

Though this advice has not been confirmed officially, it tallies with the fact the FBI’s name did not appear on a list of US intelligence agencies supporting the allegations.

“A foreign power was trying to undermine the election. He believed it to be true but was against putting it out before the election,” one former official told CNBC. Comey’s position, this official reportedly said, was: “If it is said, it shouldn’t come from the FBI, which as you’ll recall it did not.”

The Clinton campaign called on Comey to “immediately explain this incongruence”.

“He has set the standard for narrating a play-by-play,” added spokesman Brian Fallon. “If that is his way of handling things, he needs to take the same approach to the Trump campaign.”

On Monday night, NBC News reported that the FBI was conducting a preliminary inquiry into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business ties to Russia, though it was not yet a criminal investigation. Manafort called the report “an outrageous smear being driven by Harry Reid and the Clinton campaign”.

Earlier the White House highlighted concerns over the FBI director’s decision to announce that the bureau was examining whether newly discovered emails may be relevant to its investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Press secretary Josh Earnest was careful to say that Comey is regarded by Barack Obama as a man of integrity and principle. But he also noted the importance of “longstanding tradition and practice and norms” and warned of the “risk” of communicating with Congress.

Comey has faced a fierce backlash for going public with the new FBI investigation just 11 days before a presidential election, reportedly against the advice and guidelines of the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, and other senior figures at the Department of Justice. On Sunday the FBI obtained a search warrant to begin reviewing the emails, reportedly numbering 650,000 and found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel indicated that the independent federal agency may be investigating Comey over an alleged violation of the Hatch Act, which guards against federal officials seeking to influence an election.

An emboldened Trump has described the revelation as “bigger than Watergate”, but there is little initial evidence the news has upended the presidential race. A Morning Consult/Politico poll carried out after the announcement put Clinton three points ahead, while a CBS/YouGov survey of likely voters in 13 battleground states showed that only 1% of Clinton supporters were less likely to vote for her as a consequence.

Trump claimed on Monday that the FBI had stumbled across a digital “mother lode” and predicted they would discover missing work-related emails that had been deleted from Clinton’s computers.
 

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 On Sunday the FBI obtained a search warrant to begin reviewing the emails, reportedly numbering 650,000 and found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin (pictured). Photograph: Jim Young / Reuters/Reuters

“Six hundred and fifty thousand [emails]? … I think you are going to find the 33,000 that are missing,” he told supporters in Michigan. “I think we hit the mother lode, as they say in the mining industry.”

Trump urged Comey to resist political pressure. “He’s gotta hang tough because a lot of people think he did the wrong thing, but he did the right thing,” he told the Grand Rapids rally. “I was not his fan but what he did he brought back his reputation.”

“It took guts for Director Comey to do what he did,” he added, to chants of “lock her up” from the crowd.

Trump has seized on signs of momentum to push into once-safe Democratic territory in the industrial midwest. He was also due to speak in Warren in Michigan on Monday before appearing with running mate Mike Pence in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.

Until his polling gap began to narrow again last week, Trump had been forced back to a dwindling number of swing states, while Clinton eyed Republican territory in Utah, Arizona and Georgia. Renewed optimism among Republicanshas created an unusually vast national battleground, particularly as Trump’s economic populism scrambles traditional demographic dividing lines.

Michigan and Wisconsin have both been hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs and were the scene of surprise defeats for Clinton in the Democratic primary, when large numbers of blue-collar workers favoured Bernie Sanders. Signs of Democratic nervousness in Wisconsin became apparent last week when the Clinton campaign suddenly announced an advertising blitz. Sanders has been dispatched to help campaign for Clinton in the state on Wednesday.
The impact of early voting may also be forcing Trump to look further afield. States such as a North Carolina have seen heavy early turnout among Democrats and may be relatively immune from any late swing away from Clinton.
 

If he cannot win North Carolina but picks up Florida and Ohio, Trump’s best hope of pulling off a shock victory will rely on either rustbelt states like Michigan and Wisconsin or, in the north-east, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Maine.

Clinton is redoubling her efforts. Two stops on Monday in Ohio were to be followed by three in Florida on Tuesday and another swing to North Carolina later in the week.

“Most people have decided quite a long time ago what they think about all this,” she told a rally in Ohio on Monday. “Now what people are focused upon is choosing the next president and commander-in-chief.”

“I am sure a lot of you may be asking what this email business is about and why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into an election without any evidence and it’s a good a question,” she said, to boos from a young crowd at Kent State University. “By all mean they should look at [the emails] and I am sure they will reach the same conclusion as when they looked at my emails: there is no case.”

Meanwhile, Clinton suffered another blow from a separate source: the ongoing WikiLeaks release of emails from her campaign chairman, John Podesta. The latest batch appeared to show that Donna Brazile, the interim head of the Democratic National Committee and a CNN contributor, gave Clinton a heads upabout a likely debate question the day before she was due to take on Sanders in a primary debate.

CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas said: “CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate.”

Brazile has subsequently announced her resignation from CNN.

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