Washington • Hillary Clinton won't face any criminal charges, FBI Director James Comey said Sunday, eight days after he shook up the presidential contest by telling congressional leaders his agents were reviewing new evidence related to the Democratic nominee's use of private email servers.
Comey, under fire for commenting on an open probe so close to Election Day, said Sunday the bureau had reviewed all communications found in an unrelated investigation and stood by its previous opinion that Clinton should not face charges for sending or receiving emails on nongovernmental email servers.
"Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton," Comey wrote to eight congressional committee leaders, noting his agents had worked "around the clock" to review emails discovered in a separate case involving former Rep. Anthony Weiner. Weiner's estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is a top Clinton aide.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has voted for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, declined to comment to The Salt Lake Tribune other than to point to his tweet that the FBI director had informed him of the result of the review.
Later, on Fox News, Chaffetz demurred when asked by host Bret Baier about what he would advise Trump to say about the FBI's latest letter, but he promised that Congress wouldn't let it go.
"I can tell you what, in terms of Congress, people like [Reps.] Trey Gowdy and Jim Jordan and I, we're going to keep after this until we get to the truth; we don't have it yet," Chaffetz told the cable network.
Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon retweeted Chaffetz's post, adding, "We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited. Now Director Comey has confirmed it."
Chaffetz, who has promised years of congressional hearings on Clinton's email servers and other actions as the nation's top diplomat, said he received death threats after first posting about the Oct. 28 Comey letter and has increased his security.
With Clinton locked in a close race against Trump, Comey's Oct. 28 letter offered renewed ammunition for the GOP candidate on the campaign trail. Trump has said at rallies he expected Clinton to face criminal charges. Polls, nationally and in battleground states, tightened after the first Comey letter.
Just minutes after Comey's second letter was released Sunday, Trump took the stage for a rally in Minnesota. He said: "You have to understand it's a rigged system, and she is protected."
Comey had said in July that while Clinton and her aides were "extremely careless" in using the private email servers during her time as secretary of state, there was no intentional criminal act.
tburr@sltrib.com
