FBI reopens probe into Clinton emails

The FBI told US lawmakers Friday it has reopened its review of White House frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server when she was secretary of state, after discovering new mails “that appear to be pertinent.”

FBI director James Comey said his agency would take “appropriate investigative steps” to decide whether a new batch of mails contained classified information “as well as to assess their importance to the investigation.”

Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump immediately jumped on the news, praising the FBI for reviewing its decision to close the inquiry and arguing that the Democrat’s use of a private email server while in office should disqualify her from the presidency.

“We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” Trump told cheering crowds at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” he declared.

Comey made his announcement in a letter to House and Senate committee leaders whom he had previously briefed that the FBI investigation was complete and had found no evidence Clinton broke the law.

Writing to “supplement” this assessment, he told lawmakers that “in connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.”

There was no immediate reaction from the Clinton campaign.