Washington – US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Monday a new FBI investigation into thousands of emails is another demonstration of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s ongoing dishonesty.
Local media reported the investigation involves as many as 650,000 emails on a laptop believed to have been used by close Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner.
Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump rallies with supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. October 29, 2016. Credit Image: © Ricardo Arduengo/via ZUMA Wire via ZUMA Wire
Thousands of the messages could have been sent to or from the private server that Clinton used while she was secretary of state, the Wall Street Journal said Sunday, quoting people familiar with the matter.
“650,000! You know what I call that? That’s the motherlode,” Trump said to supporters Monday at a campaign stop in Michigan.
“She lied under oath when she turned over all her work-related emails, just one more lie in just so many,” Trump said, referring to an earlier investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server at her home.
“This is the biggest scandal since Watergate,” Trump asserted.
But Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton dismissed the new probe.
“There is no case here,” Clinton said at a campaign rally in Ohio, questioning why the FBI would announce the move just days ahead of November 8 elections pitting her against Trump.
Clinton had just a 1 percentage point lead in an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday that paints a picture of deeply unpopular candidates each burdened by their own series of scandals.
Clinton, the Democratic Party’s nominee, leads her Republican rival 46 per cent to 45 per cent nationwide, the poll shows, with third-party candidates Gary Johnson, a Libertarian, and Jill Stein of the Green Party taking 4 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively.
The poll was taken primarily before the FBI announcement, but noted that answers provided after the news broke show overall voter preference had not changed.
The White House meanwhile said it will not “criticize or defend” FBI Director James Comey’s decision to tell Congress that the agency found additional emails that could be related to its investigation of Clinton’s private email server.
“I’ll neither criticize nor defend Director Comey’s decisions about what to make public in the context of this investigation,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“That’s because I just don’t have the independent knowledge of the decisions that are made to release this information,” he said.
Former attorney general Eric Holder was among those questioning Comey’s decision, saying it violated policy not to discuss ongoing legal cases.
Among the crucial states where the race is tight, Trump has a slight lead or is tied with Clinton in both Ohio and Florida, polling averages by website Real Clear Politics show, which could provide him a path to the White House.
Clinton meanwhile holds leads of several percentage points in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Colorado and North Carolina.
-dpa
