Official: FBI obtains warrant to search newly found emails

WASHINGTON -- The FBI has obtained a warrant to begin reviewing newly discovered emails that may be relevant to the Hillary Clinton email-server investigation, a law-enforcement official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

FBI investigators want to review emails of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin found on a device seized during an unrelated sexting investigation of Anthony Weiner, a former New York congressman and Abedin's estranged husband.

The official, who has knowledge of the examination, would not say when investigators might complete the review of Abedin's emails but said they would move expeditiously.

The Clinton email inquiry, which closed without charges in July, resurfaced Friday when FBI director James Comey alerted members of Congress to the existence of emails he said could be pertinent to that investigation.

The FBI wants to review the emails to see whether they contain classified information and were handled properly -- the focus of the earlier Clinton inquiry.

Anthony Weiner

Separately Sunday, another law-enforcement official said FBI investigators in the Weiner sexting probe knew for weeks about the existence of the emails potentially related to the probe of Clinton's server.

A third law-enforcement official also said the FBI was aware of the emails for a period of time before Comey was briefed but wasn't more specific.

In his letter that roiled the White House race, Comey said he'd been briefed Thursday about the Abedin emails and had agreed investigators should take steps to review them.

It was not immediately clear Sunday what steps investigators took once the emails were found to advise FBI leaders additional and potentially relevant messages had been discovered.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hillary Clinton

The timing of Comey's letter less than two weeks before Election Day drew criticism from Democrats and some Republicans who cast it as unprecedented and as potentially tipping the scales in the presidential race in favor of Republican nominee Donald Trump. Energized by the news, Trump has rallied his supporters, calling the latest developments worse than Watergate and arguing his candidacy has the momentum in the final days of the race.

"We never thought we were going to say 'thank you' to Anthony Weiner," Trump said in Nevada.

Trump also highlighted reports the Justice Department had discouraged the FBI from alerting Congress to the unexpected discovery of the emails and said the department is trying "so hard" to protect Clinton.

Comey told FBI colleagues in a memo Friday he was aware the letter to Congress could be misunderstood but said he felt obligated to notify lawmakers of the new emails after having told them the matter was closed.

Dozens of former federal prosecutors, including former attorney general Eric Holder, have signed a letter critical of Comey's decision.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrote to Comey, saying the action may have violated the law.

Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state has dogged her campaign since early last year.

In July, Comey recommended against criminal prosecution after a months-long investigation but rebuked Clinton and her aides for being careless with classified material.

Justice Department officials who were advised of the FBI's intent to notify Congress about the discovery expressed concern the action would be inconsistent with department protocols designed to avoid the appearance of interference in an election.

Comey acted independently when he sent several members of Congress a letter about the emails Friday, said one of the officials.

It was not clear what the Abedin emails were about or what significance, if any, they carried to the Clinton email server investigation.

A person familiar with the investigation who lacked authority to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity said the device that appears to be at the center of the new review was a computer that belonged only to Weiner and was not one he shared with Abedin.

As a result, it was not a device searched for work-related emails at the time of the initial investigation. The person said it is "news to (Abedin)" her emails would be on a computer belonging to her husband.

In a deposition in June, Abedin said like millions of internet users who don't manage their inboxes, she never deleted old emails on her devices at work or at home.

"I didn't have a practice of managing my mailbox other than leaving what was in there sitting in there," Abedin said. "They all stayed in whatever device I was using at the time or whatever desktop I was on at the time."

In February 2013, Abedin signed a routine State Department document under penalty of perjury in which she promised to "turn over all classified or administratively controlled documents and materials" before she left her government job, and promised she was not retaining copies, "including any diaries, memorandums of conversation or other documents of a personal nature."

Abedin and Weiner separated this year after Weiner was caught in 2011, 2013 and this year sending women sexually explicit text messages and photographs of himself undressed.

Federal authorities in New York and North Carolina are investigating online communications between Weiner and a 15-year-old girl.