washington<u+2014>just two days before polls close in the presidential race, the fbi said a review of new evidence gave it no reason to reverse its earlier recommendation that hillary clinton not face charges related to her email practices while secretary of state. the announcement sunday by federal bureau of investigation director james comey lifted a legal and political cloud that had hung over mrs. clinton <u+2019>s campaign for 10 days. mr. comey told lawmakers in a letter that nothing had been uncovered in a new batch of messages that altered the department<u+2019>s earlier conclusion that no prosecution of mrs. clinton was justified in the discovery of classified information on her private email server. capital journal is wsj.com<u+2019>s home for election 2016 news. the decision, following a breakneck review of the emails, ended a stretch of intense partisan rancor over the fbi<u+2019>s decision to reveal that it had uncovered new evidence believed related to the email server on a laptop belonging to anthony weiner, the estranged husband of clinton aide huma abedin. view interactive the fbi found itself in the center of a political firestorm, facing calls from presidential nominee donald trump and other republicans for charges to be brought against mrs. clinton, while fending off accusations from democrats that the agency was improperly inserting itself into the election. when they started to review the thousands of new emails on the laptop, investigators expected the task would take weeks, if not longer, said people familiar with the matter. the only scenario that would significantly reduce that time frame, they said, was if many of the messages proved to be duplicates of ones previously found by investigators. that turned out to be the case, according to people close to the probe. officials were also able to shorten the review by working around the clock and focusing on only emails sent to or from mrs. clinton. by midday sunday, officials identified a group of clinton emails<u+2014>they wouldn<u+2019>t say how many<u+2014>that may have been new to investigators but weren<u+2019>t notably different from ones they had reviewed months earlier, said people familiar with the investigation. mr. comey<u+2019>s letter sunday said the fbi stands by its july decision not to recommend charges against mrs. clinton for potential loss or mishandling of classified material while in government, saying that the department has <u+201c>reviewed all the communications that were to or from hillary clinton while she was secretary of state.<u+201d> based on that review, mr. comey wrote, <u+201c>we have not changed our conclusion that we expressed in july with respect to secretary clinton.<u+201d> the presidential race was rocked by the surprise oct. 28 announcement by mr. comey that he had discovered a new cache of hundreds of thousands of clinton emails. the news came just as mr. trump was starting to close the gap in polls with mrs. clinton. analysts in both parties agree that the comey announcement accelerated, at least to some extent, mr. trump<u+2019>s rise after weeks of languishing. mr. trump cheered the fbi director<u+2019>s move and has made the email probe a staple of his comments at rallies in the closing stretch. now it may well be republicans who become furious at mr. comey for an announcement that helps lift the cloud over mrs. clinton just as she appeared to be stabilizing with a smaller lead in the race. <u+201c>regardless of this decision, the undisputed finding of the fbi<u+2019>s investigation is that secretary clinton put our nation<u+2019>s secrets at risk and in doing so compromised our national security,<u+201d> house speaker paul ryan said in a written statement. <u+201c>she simply believes she<u+2019>s above the law and always plays by her own rules. this is a pattern with the clintons, and the american people should not have to endure four more years of their scandal and baggage.<u+201d> speaking to reporters sunday afternoon, clinton communications director jennifer palmieri called the news a vindication of her campaign<u+2019>s longstanding position that the criminal investigation into possible loss or mishandling of classified information would be closed with no charges. <u+201c>we have seen director comey<u+2019>s latest letter to the hill. we are glad to see that he has found, as we were confident he would, that he has confirmed the conclusions he reached in july, and we are glad that this matter is resolved,<u+201d> ms. palmieri said. campaigning sunday night in michigan, mr. trump predicted that investigations of his democratic rival would continue indefinitely. he didn<u+2019>t single out mr. comey individually for criticism but said mrs. clinton is <u+201c>being protected by a rigged system.<u+201d> responding to mr. comey<u+2019>s announcement, mr. trump<u+2019>s campaign manager, kellyanne conway, wrote on twitter: <u+201c>if fbi conclusions remain unchanged, that means she still was reckless & careless, still lied about classified info.<u+201d> mr. comey said in his oct. 28 letter to congress that newly discovered emails from an unrelated case may be relevant to the probe of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s email server. the fbi is trying to determine if mr. weiner sent sexually explicit messages to a minor. officials declined to say if any new potentially sensitive or classified information was found on the laptop, but said the bulk of the material was duplicates of messages and files already reviewed or personal messages irrelevant to the probe. the fbi had a high bar to meet if it was to change its view of the case. investigators needed to find not only more classified information, but also something that suggested a degree of intent to violate laws on protecting national-security information they had not previously seen. mr. comey said in an unprecedented july press conference that the investigation had found that mrs. clinton and her aides were <u+201c>extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information<u+201d> but recommended that <u+201c>no charges are appropriate in this case.<u+201d> matthew miller, who served at the justice department during the obama administration and is now a consultant, said mr. comey<u+2019>s actions around the election had done harm to the bureau<u+2019>s standing. <u+201c>you know, millions of americans on both sides of the aisle now see the fbi as a partisan institution,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>some think its in the tank for democrats, some think its in the tank for republicans. that has huge implications.<u+201d> democrats remained angry at the situation, saying mr. comey never should have created it. <u+201c>while the original letter should never have been sent so close to an election, the expeditious review of these emails should put to rest<u+2014>once and for all<u+2014>the irresponsible speculation indulged in by the trump campaign and others,<u+201d> said rep. adam schiff, the top democrat on the intelligence committee. democrats weren<u+2019>t the only ones criticizing mr. comey. sen. charles grassley (r., iowa), chairman of the senate judiciary committee, faulted what he called <u+201c>another vague announcement<u+201d> from the fbi, and demanded the agency say whether or not it was continuing to review the new emails. mr. comey<u+2019>s letter didn<u+2019>t say whether the conduct of others close to mrs. clinton had remained under the agency<u+2019>s scrutiny. <u+2014>laura meckler and colleen mccain nelson contributed to this article. write to byron tau at byron.tau@wsj.com and devlin barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com
fbi says new emails don<u+2019>t change conclusions about hillary clinton - wsj
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