FBI must sort through thousands of emails in Clinton case

WASHINGTON — The FBI will have to sort through thousands of newly discovered emails in its renewed examination of the practices of Hillary Clinton and her aides, a U.S. official said Monday, raising questions about whether any findings might be released before election day.

The Justice Department, moving to address concerns over the timing of the revelation of the emails and a potential postelection spillover, said Monday it would “dedicate all necessary resources” to concluding the review promptly.

The timing matters because Donald Trump has been assailing Clinton ever more vigorously since FBI Director James Comey revealed the existence of the emails Friday in a remarkable and ambiguous letter to Congress.

“He’s in a tough spot, and he’s the one who will be in a position to defend his actions in the face of significant criticism from a variety of legal experts, including individuals who served in senior Department of Justice positions in administrations that were led by presidents in both parties,” Earnest said.

[...] the U.S. official who spoke to the Associated Press said the trove numbers in the thousands and the FBI, which has a warrant to begin the review, will be focusing on those deemed pertinent to its earlier Clinton email server investigation.

The FBI and Justice Department closed that investigation, which examined whether Clinton and her aides had mishandled classified information, without charges in July.

In a sworn deposition taken in June as part of a lawsuit filed by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, Abedin was asked about what devices she had used to send or receive messages from her account on the clintonemail.com server.

In an April interview, Abedin told FBI agents that after she left the State Department in 2013, Clinton’s staff transitioned to a different email sever and she “lost most of her old emails as a result.”