The media frenzy ignited by James Comey’s decision, less than two weeks before the election, to disclose that the F.B.I. uncovered a fresh trove of e-mails that may pertain to Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal continues to reverberate throughout Washington. While a number of high-profile Republicans, including G.O.P. nominee Donald Trump, have praised Comey, the F.B.I. director’s October Surprise has incited withering criticism from both sides of the aisle. No one, however, has attacked Comey with more force than former pugilist Harry Reid. In a fiery letter on Sunday, the outgoing Nevada senator argued that Comey’s “partisan actions” may have violated federal law and accused the Republican official of withholding “explosive information” linking Trump and his top advisers to the Russian government.

Less than 48 hours after Comey sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee disclosing that his office discovered thousands of additional e-mails that “appear to be pertinent to the investigation” into Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server during her tenure at the State Department, Reid lambasted the director for the timing of the announcement, which he argued was politically motivated. “Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another,” Reid wrote. The senator added that in demonstrating partisan motivations, Comey may have violated the Hatch Act, a Depression-era law which prohibits government officials from exploiting their authority to influence an election. “Your highly selective approach to publicizing information, along with your timing, was intended for the success or failure of a partisan candidate or political group.”

“... It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government.”

News of the previously undisclosed e-mails, which were surfaced during a separate investigation into allegations facing Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin, comes at pivotal point in one of the most divisive, ugly presidential elections in modern U.S. history. For weeks, Clinton has maintained a solid lead over her Republican opponent, but any major development in the presidential race could potentially tip the scales by discourage turnout among some voters or driving others. Comey acknowledged in his letter Friday that the e-mails discovered in connection with the Weiner case may not be pertinent to Clinton, or significant at all, but that he felt it was his duty to inform Congress that the agency was looking at them. Reid, for his part, was not pleased: “You rushed to take this step eleven days before a presidential election, despite the fact that for all you know, the information you possess could be entirely duplicative of the information you already examined which exonerated Secretary Clinton,” he wrote.

Comey’s decision to release the letter, which he surely knew would have an inflammatory effect, led Reid to question why the F.B.I. director would choose to highlight an investigation involving the Democratic nominee while withholding equally scandalous information about Trump. “In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government—a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity,” Reid wrote. “I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public. . . . And yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information.”

(CNBC confirmed Monday that Comey had, in fact, worried about unduly affecting the election by announcing that the F.B.I. was looking into the Russia connection. According to a former F.B.I. official, Comey believed that “a foreign power was trying to undermine the election” but “was against putting it out before the election.”)

The response from Republicans to Reid's condemnation was swift. The blistering letter prompted ardent Trump supporter and Republican senator Tom Cotton to call Reid “a disgrace to American politics” and “among [the] worst men ever in the Senate,” on Twitter. But officials at the Justice Department, which oversees the F.B.I., appeared to be on Reid’s side. “Director Comey understood our position. He heard it from Justice leadership. It was conveyed to the F.B.I., and Comey made an independent decision to alert the Hill,” a spokesperson for the department told The Washington Post in a statement Saturday. “He is operating independently of the Justice Department. And he knows it.” Attorney General Loretta Lynch also encouraged Comey not to send the letter, CBS News reports, while former attorney general Eric Holder took to the pages of the Post to vent his own frustration. “I fear he has unintentionally and negatively affected public trust in both the Justice Department and the F.B.I. And he has allowed—again without improper motive—misinformation to be spread by partisans with less pure intentions,” Holder wrote in an op-ed accusing Comey of having “violated long-standing Justice Department policies and tradition.”

Even vocal Clinton critic Jeanine Pirro denounced Comey’s decision to send the letter at this stage in the election, Politico reports. “Comey’s actions violate not only long-standing Justice Department policy, the directive of the person that he works under, the attorney general,” she said. “But even more important, the most fundamental rules of fairness and impartiality.” The Fox News host and former district attorney related Comey’s actions to when the Justice Department and the F.B.I. disclosed that she was under investigation while campaigning for New York attorney general, which she characterized as, “mean-spirited and, of course, nothing came of it, except the adverse publicity cost me at the polls.”