Huma Abedin, the trusted aide at the centre of the Hillary Clinton email storm, spent the weekend holed up at her luxury New York apartment.

Speculation mounted that Hillary Clinton would be forced to sack Miss Abedin or at least distance herself.

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump's campaign manager, called the email saga a "never-ending scandalabra".

While Mrs Clinton took to the stage with Jennifer Lopez in Florida her close confidante, usually never far from the Democratic nominee's side, looked glum as she was photographed looking out of her Manhattan window.

Miss Abedin told friends she had no idea how her emails ended up on a computer she had shared with husband Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman accused of sending sexually explicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl.

She said the computer was primarily used by Mr Weiner.