Regarding McGonigal and the October Surprise 2016 - Hypothesis: What happened between September 21, 2016, when the article about the A. Weiner's sexting affair was published, and October 28, 2016, when Comey sent his famous (or infamous) Letter to Congress? The copy of the Clinton's emails, previously leaked, was inserted into the Weiner - Abedin laptop. By whom? Possibly by Charles McGonigal
Regarding McGonigal and the October Surprise 2016 - Hypothesis: What happened between September 21, 2016, when the article about the A. Weiner's sexting affair was published, and October 28, 2016, when Comey sent his famous (or infamous) Letter to Congress? The copy of the Clinton's emails, previously leaked, was inserted into the Weiner - Abedin laptop. By whom? Possibly by Charles McGonigal, who was appointed as the head of the NY Counterintelligence on October 4, 2016, and was supposed to start his duties by the late October, 2016. In his new capacity and during this transition period (September - October 2016) he had the unique access to the laptop (in addition to his cozy relationship with the NYPD), and he could hypothetically transfer these emails, available to him, from a flash drive in a very short period of time.
And all this happened after the Trump - Netanyahu bargaining session of September 25, 2016, apparently after the deal was made on the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital, announced by Trump later that day, in exchange for October Surprise 2016 which handed him the Presidency of the US.
"On or about September 28, 2016 – FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was informed about Clinton emails found on Weiner’s laptop."
This timeline allows to pinpoint the hypothetical dates when the emails were transferred: September 25 - 27, 2016, after the agreement between Trump and Netanyahu was reached at the September 25 meeting. It is possible that the emails were transferred from the remote source while this laptop was on line.
In either case, McGonigal, due to his now known history and the unique access to the laptop, is under high degree of suspicion.
-
-Attention FBI - #FBI: Regarding McGonigal - 2
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) January 23, 2024
Key dates in the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton's emails | CNN Politics https://t.co/9pZxo6jAtC
June 27, 2016 – Lynch met with President Bill Clinton at an airport in Phoenix after Clinton realized the two were on separate planes on… pic.twitter.com/SVC1aWPgiY
Text messages of FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok indicated that he, McCabe, and Priestap discussed the Weiner laptop on September 28. Strzok said that he had initially planned to send a team to New York to review the emails, but a conference call with NYO was scheduled instead. The conference call took place on September 29, and five members of the FBI Midyear team participated. Notes from the conference call indicate the participants discussed the presence of a large volume of emails (350,000) on the Weiner laptop and specific domain names, including clintonemail.com and state.gov. The Midyear SSA said that NYO also mentioned seeing BlackBerry domain emails on the Weiner laptop. Additional discussions took place on October 3 and 4, 2016. However, after October 4, we found no evidence that anyone associated with the Midyear investigation, including the entire leadership team at FBI Headquarters, took any action on the Weiner laptop issue until the week of October 24, and then did so only after the Weiner case agent expressed concerns to SDNY, prompting SDNY to contact the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) on October 21 to raise concerns about the lack of action.
M.N. - Comment: And this is after McGonigal was appointed the head of NYO Counterintelligence Division.
Clinton's Emails, Weiner's Laptop and a Falsehood - FactCheck.org
Q: Did the FBI wait until after the 2016 election to review the Hillary Clinton emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop?
A: No. A viral story misinterprets an FBI document and ignores widely reported facts.
FULL ANSWER
Citing a recently released FBI document, a viral story misleads readers by claiming that the emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that were found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop weren’t “reviewed” by an FBI investigator until after the 2016 election.
The FB News Cycle story claims that the document proves that now-fired FBI agent Peter Strzok “buried evidence of HRC’s corruption.”
But the premise is false: The emails were reviewed days before the election.
Some background:
- On July 5, 2016, former FBI Director James Comey announced that the bureau would recommend that charges not be filed in the probe into Clinton’s use of a private email system while heading the State Department.
- On Sept. 26, 2016, the FBI executed a search warrant on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s iPhone, iPad and laptop computer, and discovered 141,000 emails on the laptop that were potentially relevant to the FBI’s closed investigation of Clinton. Longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin was married to Weiner at the time. (Abedin’s lawyer said early this year the couple was privately finalizing their divorce.) Weiner was being separately investigated for “sexting” with an underage teenage girl.
- A month later, on Oct. 28, 2016, Comey told lawmakers in a letter that the FBI had “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” and that investigators would “review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information.”
- On Nov. 6, 2016, Comey told Congress in a follow-up memo that the FBI had “reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State” and that officials “have not changed our conclusions.”
- The election took place Nov. 8, 2016.
The Aug. 4 story on fbnewscycle.com ignores these facts and claims that the emails found on Weiner’s laptop weren’t eyed until after the election. The post gained popularity on the Facebook page “Donald Trump is Our President,” from which it was reshared by thousands.
“While the NYPD was conducting a forensic analysis of the Weiner/Abedin laptop, it was discovered that the hard drive contained 350,000 of Hillary Clinton’s emails and 344,000 Blackberry communications,” the story says. “Here’s what you were never told by the HRC-BHO protective media. These were never reviewed by the FBI investigators assigned to help lead agent Peter Strzok. Nor, was any attempt made to analyze the newly discovered files until after the election was over.”
As evidence, the website includes an FBI document dated Nov. 9, 2016 — the day after the election — that indicates Strzok had requested that a copy of a laptop’s hard drive be reviewed for “evidence of intrusion.” The document was among a batch released earlier this month to the conservative group Judicial Watch.
But that document isn’t evidence that the emails weren’t reviewed before the Nov. 8 election.
A June 2018 report by the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General, which conducted a review of the bureau’s investigation, indicates that the FBI obtained a search warrant for the laptop on Oct. 30, 2016 — this time to look for information related to the Clinton email investigation — and that multiple investigators were involved in the review.
“The Midyear team flagged all potentially work-related emails encountered during the review process and compared those to emails that they had previously reviewed in other datasets,” the report states, referring to the investigation by its “Midyear” code name. “Any work-related emails that were unique, meaning that they did not appear in any other dataset, were individually reviewed by the Lead Analyst, Strzok, and FBI Attorney 1 for evidentiary value.”
The report indicates the review of the emails was completed Nov. 6, 2016, before Comey sent his second letter to Congress. Still, it says, the lead analyst on the case told the inspector general’s office that even after that review, the FBI needed to do more investigative work.
“The Lead Analyst told us that the further investigative steps needed to complete the investigation included at least a ‘malware analysis’ to examine the laptop for intrusion and a re-interview of Abedin,” the report states.
The analyst said that such an analysis was needed to know if the laptop was “compromised by anyone” or if a “foreign power obtained” classified material.
So, while further examination took place after the election, it’s false to claim, as fbnewscycle.com did, that Strzok’s intrusion analysis request “shows he sat on the laptop for more than 6 weeks – until the election was over!”
The FBI’s handling of the emails on Weiner’s laptop has indeed fueled criticism about why the agency chose to wait weeks before taking action on the late-September discovery. The inspector general’s report said it found no “consistent or persuasive explanation” for the delay, but said it gathered no evidence that the laptop was “deliberately placed on the back-burner by others in the FBI to protect Clinton.”
Clinton, for her part, has argued that the timing of the announcement to review the emails did quite the opposite.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk false stories shared on the social media network.
Sources
“A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election.” Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice. June 2018.
Comey, James. Director, FBI. Letter to Congress. 28 Oct 2016.
Comey, James. Director, FBI. Letter to Congress. 6 Nov 2016.
“Statement by FBI Director James B. Comey on the Investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Use of a Personal E-Mail System.” Press release, FBI. 5 Jul 2016.
Strzok, Peter. Agent, FBI. “Case Support Request.” 9 Nov 2016.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves a meeting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York on Sunday.
Evan Vucci/APUpdated at 10:20 p.m. ET
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had a strained relationship with Barack Obama, but he's putting in time to get off on the right foot with whoever succeeds the president.
Netanyahu met privately with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for more than an hour at Trump Tower in New York on Sunday morning. Netanyahu met with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for about 50 minutes Sunday evening.
The Trump campaign released a summary of the GOP nominee's meeting with Netanyahu, which said in part, "Mr. Trump and the Prime Minister discussed the special relationship between America and Israel and the unbreakable bond between the two countries. The topics of military assistance, security and regional stability were addressed."
According to the campaign statement, Trump promises to recognize Jerusalem as "the undivided capital of the State of Israel," as he has for months now. This would be a reversal of U.S. policy since the founding of Israel in 1948. The status of Jerusalem is a highly contentious issue between Israelis and Palestinians. The U.S. has its embassy in Tel Aviv, and officially does not recognize Jerusalem as a part of any country. Congress has passed laws trying to reverse that stance, but the Supreme Court affirmed the supremacy of the executive branch in the matter in 2015.
Trump hesitated on that question when he was first asked about it back in December while speaking before the Republican Jewish Coalition, where the audience booed. Trump was also criticized for invoking Jewish stereotypes in that appearance.
At the time, Trump had said he would wait to answer until he met with Netanyahu. A planned trip to Israel to meet the prime minister at the end of 2015 was cancelled after Netanyahu condemned Trump's call for a temporary ban on the immigration of Muslims to the United States.
Netanyahu's office put out a brief statement on the meeting, stating that it was also attended by Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is Jewish.
The statement said, "Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked Mr. Trump for his friendship and support for Israel."
A senior Clinton campaign aide offered a summary on Sunday evening on the Democratic nominee's meeting with Netanyahu.
"Secretary Clinton stressed that a strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share overarching strategic interests and the common values of democracy, equality, tolerance, and pluralism," the aide said on background.
The campaign aide said Clinton stressed her support for the military relationship between the U.S. and Israel, and that she discussed with Netanyahu regional issues like the fight against ISIS and the nuclear deal with Iran.
Netanyahu vehemently opposed to the deal, and according to Clinton's campaign, she "committed to continue to work closely with Israel to enforce and implement the nuclear deal with Iran."
Clinton was also said to have expressed support for a two-state solution negotiated directly between the Israelis and Palestinians.
A statement from Netanyahu's office said the meeting with Clinton was also attended by Dermer, as well as Clinton's top policy advisor Jake Sullivan.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz first reported that Netanyahu was meeting with Trump and Clinton. It says that the meeting with Trump came together on Friday after calls between Trump aides and Netanyahu's advisers. The paper reported that Netanyahu insisted on also meeting with Clinton, as to not be seen as taking sides.
Netanyahu was seen as taking sides in 2012, as he warmly received Republican nominee Mitt Romney — whom he had worked with decades before — while maintaining a chilly relationship with President Obama, who has long been critical of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Netanyahu defends. Their relationship soured further as the U.S. pursued negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
The Israeli prime minister has a long professional relationship with Hillary Clinton, which the Washington Post documented as "sometimes fraught" in 2015. Clinton wrote of being the "bad cop" with Netanyahu while serving as Secretary of State.
Netanyahu's meeting with Trump took place at approximately 10 a.m. ET, while he met Clinton just before 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Haaretz cites aides to the prime minister who say that Netanyahu chose to go to the candidates instead of inviting them to come to him given the constraints on their schedule in preparing for the first presidential debate on Monday night.
EXCLUSIVE – A Republican senator is pressing for answers on why the FBI waited weeks to act after the 2016 discovery of thousands of emails on ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner's laptop that potentially were relevant to the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., fired off a letter Thursday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein asking about the timeline, citing texts between two key FBI investigators.
The messages, first reported by The Wall Street Journal in late January, indicate that top bureau officials were aware of the discovery of thousands of emails from Weiner well before the FBI sought a search warrant in late October, and effectively revived the Clinton probe right before the election.
"The cryptic and disjointed nature of the text messages, in addition to heavy redactions applied to other FBI documents, make it difficult to understand fully the sequence of events,” Johnson wrote to Rosenstein, giving him a deadline of March 15 to provide information to the committee.
The text messages were between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who once served on Robert Mueller's Russia probe, and since have come under fire for their anti-Trump messages.
The texts in the Johnson letter suggest that as of Sept. 28, 2016, they and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe were aware of new emails found on Weiner’s laptop during the criminal investigation into his relationship with a minor.
“Got called up to Andy’s earlier … hundreds of thousands of emails turned over by Weiner’s atty to sdny, includes a ton of material from spouse. Sending team up tomorrow to review … this will never end…” Strzok wrote in a text message to Page.
The “spouse” Strzok was referring to was Huma Abedin — a longtime top aide and confidante of Clinton’s.
“Turned over to them why?” Page replied.
“Apparently one of his recent texting partners may not have been 18 … don’t have the details yet,” Strzok wrote. Page responded noting that news reports said the young woman “was 15.”
But it wasn’t until Oct. 27, 2016 that former FBI Director James Comey was briefed on the newly discovered emails.
The Washington Post first reported in January that the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is specifically investigating McCabe, and whether he wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the presidential election.
McCabe left the FBI in January after months of conflict-of-interest complaints from Republicans who long have questioned McCabe’s ties to the Democratic Party. His wife ran as a Democrat for a Virginia Senate seat in 2015, and got financial help from a group tied to Clinton family ally former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe — all while McCabe investigated Clinton’s emails.
But the text messages — and new testimony from top FBI officials — provide further details about when and how those emails were discovered, and who at the FBI knew.
According to new testimony from an Office of Special Counsel interview with former Comey Chief of Staff James Rybicki, McCabe’s office did not notify him until the night of Oct. 26, 2016 of the need to brief Comey on “something related to mid-year exam,” the FBI’s case name for the Clinton email investigation.
“They found a lot of new emails right? So it’s kind of when people say we didn’t find anything, that’s not accurate,” Rybicki said in his testimony. “We did find new stuff. But nothing that would change our view of the original conclusion in July. That’s the upshot.”
Comey announced on July 5, 2016 that he would not file charges against Clinton, saying that she was “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information on her private email server.
The OSC also interviewed FBI’s deputy general counsel, Trisha Anderson, who testified that Comey was briefed on the material on Weiner’s laptop on Oct. 27, 2016.
“We had no search warrant at that point in time for purposes of the Clinton email server investigation so he was briefed on what we knew at the time,” Anderson said, noting that they had a discussion “about what we should do going forward,” and mentioned “whether we should seek a search warrant, how we should proceed to seek to obtain evidence.”
Anderson noted that the director’s office decided the need to seek a search warrant “urgently.”
OSC investigators asked what the urgency was, to which Anderson replied: “That given the significance of the matter um, uh, that we had to proceed quickly. It was just too, too explosive for us to sit on.”
On Oct. 27, 2016, Page texted Strzok: “Hey, guess what. We’re going to have a mye [Clinton email probe] meeting tomorrow. Like old times…”
Strzok replied, “Holy moly. Who?”
“The whole band! We’re back on tour!” Page answered.
On Oct. 28, 2016, Comey sent a letter to Congress announcing the “recent developments” of the discovery of Clinton and Abedin communications found on Weiner’s laptop — which he had been briefed on just the day before. That email reopened the Clinton probe, just a week before the election.
Months later, in December 2016, Strzok and Page texted about the possibility that the FBI would conduct an interview with Abedin, and discussed her potential “immunity.”
Authorities have opened preliminary investigations
Weiner is alleged to have exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a purportedly underage girl
Prosecutors in the office of US Attorney Preet Bharara have issued a subpoena for Anthony Weiner’s cell phone and other records, according to law enforcement officials.
The FBI and the New York Police Department have opened preliminary investigations of allegations that the former New York Democratic congressman exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a purportedly underage girl.
Spokespersons for the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and the FBI declined to comment.
The allegations first surfaced in the Daily Mail.
The online sexting relationship allegedly went on for months between Weiner and a girl claiming to be just 15. The Daily Mail reported she said he sent her numerous photos, one of him in a pool and at least one bare-chested.
The outlet reported that the girl said she reached out to Weiner in January on Twitter.
In a statement to CNN, Weiner neither confirmed or denied sending the texts.
“I have repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgment about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent. I am filled with regret and heartbroken for those I have hurt,” he said.
Weiner continued: “While I have provided the Daily Mail with information showing that I have likely been the subject of a hoax, I have no one to blame but me for putting myself in this position. I am sorry.”
CNN has not been able to confirm this was a hoax.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump noted that Weiner donated $550 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign last year.
“The announcement by the FBI and New York Police Department that they are investigating close Clinton ally Anthony Weiner’s inappropriate relationship with an underaged female is extremely disturbing,” Jessica Ditto said. “The Clinton campaign should immediately return all campaign contributions from Weiner. America has had enough of the sleaze that is Clinton, Inc.”
Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest aides, announced last month that she was separating from Weiner after photos emerged of him allegedly sexting with another woman while their son was in bed with him. That woman was described in the New York Post as a 40-something divorced woman from the West.
Weiner left Congress in June 2011 when sexually-charged, sometimes explicit, texts with women other than his wife first emerged. His social media habits continued after leaving Congress and contributed to his poor showing in the 2013 New York City mayoral race, a contest in which he had once been a leading contender.
CNN’s Sonia Moghe contributed to this report.
The Justice Department’s inspector general will issue a report on how top federal officials handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Here are the key dates of the investigation from 2015 and 2016:
July 10, 2015 – The FBI opened a criminal investigation, code-named “Midyear Exam,” into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information while secretary of state.
Late September 2015 – As then-FBI Director James Comey prepared for his first public questions about the case at congressional hearings and meetings with reporters, he met with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch at the Justice Department. Lynch asked him to refer to the investigation as a “matter,” Comey said in his book, “A Higher Loyalty.”
In a statement to CNN after Comey’s book was released, Lynch defended her language and said no concerns were raised. “If he had any concerns regarding the email investigation, classified or not, he had ample opportunities to raise them with me both privately and in meetings. He never did,” Lynch said.
June 27, 2016 – Lynch met with President Bill Clinton at an airport in Phoenix after Clinton realized the two were on separate planes on the same tarmac.
July 1, 2016 – Lynch said at the Aspen Institute that she “wouldn’t do it again”; she made clear she wouldn’t formally recuse herself from the investigation, but would accept the recommendations of career DOJ staff and the FBI.
July 2, 2016 – Hillary Clinton was interviewed by FBI for three-and-a-half hours.
Morning of July 5, 2016 – Comey, in “A Higher Loyalty,” said he called Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and told them that he planned to hold a news conference on the Clinton case and was not coordinating the statement with the Justice Department. Comey writes in the book Lynch asked only, “What will you be recommending?” and he replied with, “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to answer that.” He added: “It’s very important that I not have coordinated this in any way with the department. I hope some day you will understand why.” Lynch said nothing, according to Comey.
Later on July 5, 2016 – Comey issued a surprise statement on the email server investigation recommending no charges against Clinton; he said DOJ officials “do not know what I am about to say.”
September 22, 2016 – CNN reported federal prosecutors were investigating former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, for sexting with a minor.
September 28, 2016 – Comey testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
Asked if he would reopen the Clinton case if he found new information, Comey said: “It’s hard for me to answer in the abstract. We would certainly look at any new and substantial information.”
On or about September 28, 2016 – FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was informed about Clinton emails found on Weiner’s laptop. “Got called up to Andy’s earlier…hundreds of thousands of emails turned over by Weiner’s atty to sdny, includes a ton of material from spouse. Sending team up tomorrow to review … this will never end …,” FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok wrote to FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The two worked closely on the Clinton email probe, and later on the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election.
Early October 2016 – Comey, in “A Higher Loyalty,” wrote that someone at FBI (he believes McCabe), mentioned to him that the Weiner had a laptop might have some connection to the Clinton case. “I don’t remember the conversation clearly. I suspect that is because it seemed like a passing comment and the notion that Anthony Weiner’s computer might connect to Midyear and Hillary Clinton made no sense to me,” Comey said.
October 24, 2016 – The Wall Street Journal reported that Jill McCabe, the wife of Andrew McCabe, accepted nearly $500,000 from the political action committee of then-Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton family ally, during a failed bid for state senate in 2015.
October 26, 2016 – Rudy Giuliani went on Fox News to say that then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had “a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next two days.”
October 27, 2016 – Comey held a meeting with the Clinton e-mail investigation team at the FBI to discuss obtaining a search warrant for a set of Clinton-related emails the FBI had discovered on Weiner’s laptop.
Comey wrote in his memoir that the FBI agents in the room told him that it “would take many weeks” to review the newly discovered emails, and that there was “no chance” that it would be done before the election.
October 28, 2016 – Comey wrote to Congress saying, “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.” Lynch and Yates privately said the letter ran afoul of DOJ policy.
October 30, 2016 – Prosecutors obtained a search warrant to begin reviewing Weiner’s laptop for emails related to the Clinton investigation.
November 1, 2016 – McCabe sent emails to FBI executives and officials overseeing the Clinton email Investigation informing them that he was recusing himself from those investigations.
November 2, 2016 – Email is leaked showing that Peter Kadzik, then-head of legislative affairs at the Justice Department, offered Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta a “heads-up’” in May 2015 about a congressional hearing where a Justice official was likely to be questioned about Clinton’s email use.
November 6, 2016 – A second Comey letter to Congress stated, “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July.” CNN reported that DOJ agreed with decision to send letter.
November 8, 2016 – Donald Trump is elected President of the United States.
CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
Marcel Lazăr Lehel or famously known as Guccifer hacker for hacking the elite including Hillary Clinton, President Bush and Collin Powell is now making news for his disappearance and eventual death which in reality is nothing but a hoax. Truth is that Guccifer is alive and well and currently awaiting sentencing in a Virginia jail cell.
Guccifer who was once a taxi driver in Romania managed to break into the computer accounts of high-profile political figures and is now paying the price for his malicious deeds — The news about his escape and death are fake which were first published by a website whatdoesitmean (dot) com and then Christian Times Newspaper stating that ”Romanian hacker with access to Clinton emails found dead in jail cell.”
According to sources, the article on whatdoesitmean.com was posted by Sorcha Faal who is known for posting “outrageous” and “sensational” political conspiracy content; meanwhile, the story on Christian Times Newspaper has been viewed more than 15,000 times. The newspaper claimed ”they do their best to provide accurate, updated news and information.”
Must Read: Hacked Photos Show Colin Powell At Bohemian Grove
Must Read: Email & Facebook account of U.S. Nuclear Security Agency Administrator Hacked by “Guccifer”
However, this is not the first time when the Internet was spammed with fake news. In 2015 similar fake news websites claimed that co-creator of SpyEye Trojan Hamza Bendelladj has been sentenced to death, in reality, he cannot be sentenced to death as all his criminal activities were electronic and he had already been pleaded guilty for his crimes. Hamza is now facing 15 years jail time.
The FBI revealed Friday it was reviewing a new batch of emails that “appear to be pertinent” to its previous investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server — and multiple federal officials told NBC News they were found as part of an on-going probe of disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner.
The emails were found on a laptop that Weiner allegedly used to send inappropriate text messages and pictures to an underage girl, the sources told NBC News.
Investigators also discovered Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, had used the same laptop to send emails to Clinton and now they are checking those messages to see if there was any classified information on them, the sources said.
Abedin, who is Clinton's closest aide, is separated from Weiner.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks with senior aide Huma Abedin aboard her campaign plane at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., on Oct. 28, 2016, before traveling to Iowa for rallies.Andrew Harnik / APClinton said the FBI has not been in touch with her and called on Director James Comey to release whatever emails they found immediately. She said she has no idea what they might be but added, "I'm confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July."
The Democratic nominee was referring to the FBI investigation of her use of a private email server while secretary of state which ended with no criminal charges against her.
"Voting is already underway, so the American people deserve to get the full facts immediately," she said during a brief press conference.
Asked if it will affect the election, which most polls show her winning, Clinton said, "I think people made up their minds a long time ago."
In his letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee announcing the discovery of the emails, Comey made no mention of Weiner, who resigned in disgrace in a sexting scandal.
"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation," Comey wrote. "I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."
A senior law enforcement official told NBC News Friday that the Comey letter was sent to the Hill "out of an abundance of caution" and to be extra-thorough.
There's no indication, the official said, that Clinton, her campaign or the State Department withheld information about the contents on Weiner's laptop.
FBI Director James Comey testifies before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 7, 2016.YURI GRIPAS / AFP - Getty ImagesThe politically explosive revelation came just 11 days before Election Day and a top Clinton aide told NBC News that neither the candidate nor the campaign got any advance warning that Comey's letter was coming.
"It boggles the mind why this step was taken with just 11 days to go," Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said.
Comey should "provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement.
"Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is 'reopening' an investigation but Comey's words do not match that characterization," he said. "Director Comey's letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant. It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election."
Tim Kaine, Clinton's vice presidential running mate, who was at an early voting site in Tallahassee on Friday, told reporters "gotta read a little more, gotta read a little more" before continuing on.
Related: Read the Letter
Donald Trump called the revelation "bigger than Watergate" and praised the FBI for having "the courage to right the horrible mistake they made," an apparent reference to the agency's decision earlier this year to not press criminal charges against Clinton.
"I need to open with a very critical breaking news announcement," Trump said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire. "The FBI has just sent a letter to Congress informing them that they have discovered new emails pertaining to the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's investigation."
"This was a grave miscarriage of justice," he said, "it is about to be corrected."
The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee also applauded the FBI's move.
“The FBI’s decision to reopen its investigation into Secretary Clinton reinforces what the House Judiciary Committee has been saying for months: the more we learn about Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server, the clearer it becomes that she and her associates committed wrongdoing and jeopardized national security," the Judiciary Committee said in a statement.
Related: FBI Releases Notes From Interview With Hillary Clinton Over Emails
But Comey, who is also a Republican and who took a lot of heat in July for his agency's decision to not charge Clinton with a crime, did not say in the letter that he was reexamining the FBI's previous finding, which concluded that her handling of the emails was sloppy but not criminal.
Documents related to the case were released just before the Labor Day weekend and included a summary of Clinton's July interview with the FBI about her private email server, as well as a detailed investigative summary of the case.
It is unusual for the FBI to tell Congress, as Comey did, that it is looking over newly discovered evidence in a criminal inquiry that was otherwise closed.
Federal practice is not to comment on ongoing investigations, or discuss details of concluded investigations. Comey previously explained his departure from that practice in his earlier congressional testimony, given the special nature of this case and congressional oversight inquiries.
Still, some congressional Democrats told NBC News Friday that they are frustrated that Comey issued the letter reopening this issue without providing much in the way of specifics.
Comments
Post a Comment