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U.S. ELECTION 2016

ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

For 10 days, a cache of thousands of e-mails threw the U.S. election, Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into chaos – and we're still not totally sure why. What do the e-mails say? Who sent them, and to whom? And why did the FBI's director bring this up before the election, instead of after?

FBI director James Comey signalled a conclusion to the Clinton e-mail matter with a letter to Congress on Sunday upholding the bureau's decision not to charge Ms. Clinton. But the public isn't done discussing it. Lawmakers demand answers to questions left unresolved by two ambiguous letters; Ms. Clinton and her aides feel wronged by a curiously timed disclosure; ex-prosecutors of both parties are concerned the bureau's actions strayed from its mandate to remain above politics; and the Trump campaign isn't giving up on its claims that Ms. Clinton did something wrong, even in the absence of clear evidence about what actually happened. Here's a primer on how we got to that point, and what we know (and don't know) so far.


I thought the Clinton e-mail probe was over. Isn't it?

Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department launched a probe into Ms. Clinton's use of a personal e-mail account during her tenure as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. They wanted to know if she had used the account, based off a server at her suburban mansion in Chappaqua, N.Y., to communicate or mishandle classified material, which is illegal.

During the investigation, the State Department released thousands of e-mails and Ms. Clinton apologized for using the private server, but denied that she broke any rules using it. This past July, Mr. Comey, the FBI director, recommended against charging Ms. Clinton and said that, while her actions were "extremely carless," there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing:

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

Who is FBI director James Comey?

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But on Oct. 28, Mr. Comey wrote a letter to Congress saying more e-mails had been uncovered that might be connected to the Clinton investigation. The vaguely worded letter didn't explicitly reopen the Clinton investigation, nor did it confirm whether the e-mails were directly relevant to the Clinton case or not, but Mr. Comey wrote that the FBI would be reviewing them to see if they contained classified material. Federal investigators secured a warrant to examine the e-mails.

Then came Sunday's statement, in which Mr. Comey effectively cleared the Democratic presidential nominee by saying the new review had done nothing to change the FBI's July recommendation that she not face charges.


Where did those other e-mails come from?

U.S. media organizations, citing law-enforcement officials close to the investigation, have reported that the e-mails came from a device owned by Anthony Weiner, a disgraced former congressman who is separated from one of Ms. Clinton's top aides, Huma Abedin.

Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner are shown at a gala in New York in May, 2016. The two are now separated. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Mr. Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after accidentally posting a picture of himself in his underwear – a private message intended for a woman who was not his wife – to his Twitter account. But he was caught again sending sexually charged messages last summer – which is what prompted Ms. Abedin to leave him – and this fall, federal investigators in New York and North Carolina began investigating whether he had sexted with a 15-year-old girl.

On Oct. 3, agents in New York executed a search warrant to obtain Weiner's iPhone, an iPad and the laptop, The New York Times reported. Searching the laptop, they found evidence of a trove of e-mails similar to ones that had been examined in the Clinton investigation.

A person familiar with the investigation, who lacked authority to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity, told Associated Press that the device was a computer that belonged only to Mr. Weiner and was not one he shared with Ms. Abedin. As a result, it was not a device searched for work-related e-mails at the time of the initial investigation. The person said it is "news to [Abedin]" that her e-mails would be on a computer belonging to her husband.

There are, according to some reports, hundreds of thousands of e-mails on the laptop.


Why did Comey bring this up only days before the election?

Mr. Comey is facing tough questions from both Democrats and some Republicans about the timing of his letters to Congress. Mr. Comey says he felt obligated to alert Congress after having previously testified that the investigation had been closed. Several key issues are at play:

Was it political interference to write the letters? Democrats fear the Comey letters created fresh momentum for Republican Donald Trump in the final week of the presidential race as well as for down-ballot Republicans running for the Senate and the House. The second letter exonerating Ms. Clinton did little to dispel those doubts: "Today's letter makes Director Comey's actions nine days ago even more troubling," said Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee. Separately, former attorney-general Eric Holder and dozens of other former federal prosecutors signed a letter on Oct. 30 saying Mr. Comey strayed from Justice Department policy, which instructs officials to "exercise heightened restraint near the time of a primary or general election" to avoid the appearance of prosecutorial influence in the electoral process.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid speaks in Washington on Sept. 27, 2016. YURI GRIPAS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Would it have been political interference to not write the letters? Mr. Comey's supporters say had he kept silent until after the election, he would have faced partisan allegations of stifling a bombshell announcement and perhaps given fuel to allegations of a "rigged" election. He also would have risked the chance of the news leaking out anyway. "Do I sit quietly and do nothing for 10 days and let the election quietly go by, pregnant with the knowledge that we have thousands of new emails?" said Ron Hosko, a retired FBI assistant director. "Or do I tell the same Congress that I've been committed to being transparent with?"

Was what he did legal? In a scathing letter to Mr. Comey on Oct. 30, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suggested Mr. Comey may have violated the Hatch Act, a 1939 law that prohibits federal employees from influencing elections.

What Comey knew and when: FBI investigators in the Weiner sexting probe knew for weeks about the new e-mails' existence, a law enforcement official told Associated press Sunday. A second law-enforcement official also said the FBI was aware for a period of time about the e-mails before Mr. Comey was briefed, but wasn't more specific. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

What the Justice Department knew about his plans: In an apparent departure from the wishes of top Justice Department leaders, Mr. Comey acted independently when he sent his first letter to Congress, one Justice Department official told Associated Press. The move creates the potential for a divide between the Justice Department and Mr. Comey, who has served in government under both Democratic and Republican presidents.


How is this playing out on the campaign trail?

A Trump supporter waves an anti-Clinton flag as pro-Clinton supporters demonstrate behind him outside the the Bank of Colorado Arena on the campus of University of Northern Colorado on Oct. 30, 2016.

A Trump supporter waves an anti-Clinton flag as pro-Clinton supporters demonstrate behind him outside the the Bank of Colorado Arena on the campus of University of Northern Colorado on Oct. 30, 2016.

JASON CONNOLLY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

On Sunday, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon welcomed Mr. Comey's latest letter as the Democratic candidate sought to close the book on a controversy that has bedeviled her candidacy.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, is not letting go of the e-mail issue or the heated "Crooked Hillary" rhetoric it has directed at the Clinton campaign. "Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know," Mr. Trump said at a Nov. 6 rally in suburban Detroit.


With reports from The New York Times News Service and Globe staff


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