October 31, 2016

Clinton email scandal back in spotlight and ‘all because of a British tabloid’

A Daily Mail story accusing former US congressman Anthony Weiner of having an “online sexual relationship” with a minor is said to be behind renewed FBI interest in Hillary Clinton’s private emails scandal.

The claim was made by the Washington Post who wrote on Friday that the Mail’s exclusive story, published in September, was “the reason for Hillary Clinton’s new FBI nightmare”.

The Post said allegations in the Mail’s article prompted the Federal Bureau of Investigations to seize Weiner’s laptop, which he shared with his ex-wife Huma Abedin, a top Clinton aide.

Agents then found more than 1,000 emails between Clinton and Abedin, the Post reported, prompting the FBI to pick up the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server to send emails, having closed the case with no charges in July.

FBI director James Comey’s decision to announce the renewal of the investigation into Clinton during the presidential campaign is seen as having levelled out the contest between Clinton and Donald Trump a week before US voters go to the polls.

The Post said the furore was “all because of story in a British tabloid”.

This is not the first time The Daily Mail has disrupted a Clinton campaign. In 1992, the paper was the first publication to report on then Governor Bill Clinton’s affair with Gennifer Flowers.