FBI agents have not been able to review the new potentially “pertinent” emails that have been linked to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server because the bureau didn't have a search warrant to read them, government officials told Yahoo News.

At the time, FBI Director James Comey wrote the letter, “he had no idea what was in the content of the emails,” one of the officials said, referring to recently discovered emails found on the laptop of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Weiner is under investigation for allegedly sending illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl.

View photos FBI Director James Comey (right) has not been able to review emails that have been linked to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s (left) private email server because the bureau didn't have a search warrant to. Photo: AP More

View photos Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner is under investigation for allegedly sending illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl. Photo: Supplied More

As of Saturday night, the FBI had still not obtained approval from the Justice Department for a warrant that would allow agency officials to read any of the newly discovered Abedin emails, and therefore are still in the dark about whether they include any classified material that the bureau has not already seen.

“We do not have a warrant,” a senior law enforcement official said.

“Discussions are under way (between the FBI and the Justice Department) as to the best way to move forward.”

Comey and other senior FBI officials were not aware of what was in the emails - and whether they contained any material the FBI had not already obtained.

Donald Trump’s campaign and Republicans in Congress have suggested that the FBI director would not have written his letter unless he had been made aware of significant new emails that might justify reopening the investigation into the Clinton server.





But a message that Comey wrote on Friday to all FBI agents seeking to explain his decision to write the controversial letter strongly hinted that investigators did not not yet have legal authority establishing “probable cause” to review the content of Abedin’s emails on Weiner’s electronic devices.

In that message, Comey told agents that he had only been briefed on Thursday about the matter and that the “recommendation” of investigators was “with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case.”

Comey approved the recommendation to seek judicial access to the material that day, he wrote.

“Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them,” he told agents.

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