As the Democrat’s presidential campaign faces last-minute scrutiny, here is an overview of what’s happened until now – and what could come next

What’s the problem with Hillary Clinton’s emails?

Clinton used a private email server, situated in her New York home, while she was secretary of state, from 2009 to 2013. She has admitted that this was a mistake. In July, the FBI concluded that Clinton and her aides had been “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information but should not face criminal charges. The issue has dogged the Democrat’s campaign for the presidency, with supporters of Republican rival Donald Trump regularly chanting: “Lock her up!”



Clinton emails: FBI gets warrant as Comey told he may have broken law Read more

What just happened?

On Friday, FBI director James Comey alerted members of Congress to the existence of a new batch of emails he said could be “pertinent” to the investigation. As many as 650,000 messages were reportedly found on a laptop seized during an unrelated investigation of Anthony Weiner, a former New York congressman who is the estranged husband of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Abedin and Weiner separated after Weiner was caught in 2011, 2013 and again in 2016 sending women sexually explicit text messages and pictures of himself undressed. Federal authorities in New York and North Carolina are investigating online communications between Weiner and a 15-year-old girl.

Senior officials at the Department of Justice expressed concern that Comey’s decision to inform Congress would be inconsistent with protocols designed to avoid the appearance of interference in an election. But the FBI director went ahead.

What is in the emails?

We don’t know. Comey himself admitted: “The FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant.” Those mails with a connection to Clinton’s server could merely be duplicates of emails already analysed. Or they could contain a smoking gun that compromises Clinton even after the election. On Sunday, the FBI obtained a warrant to begin reviewing the newly discovered emails. The process will not be finished before election day.

What was the reaction to Comey’s announcement?

The timing, less than two weeks before a presidential election, drew harsh criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans. At an organising event in Daytona Beach, Clinton called Comey’s actions “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling”.

Her campaign launched an all-out war on Comey. Chairman John Podesta said: “By providing selective information, he’s allowed partisans to distort and exaggerate in order to inflict maximum political damage and no one can separate what is true from what is not because Comey has not been forthcoming with the facts.”

The wider Democratic establishment also weighed in: four senators demanded a briefing from Comey and nearly 100 former Department of Justice officials and prosecutors, both Republican and Democratic and led by the former Obama attorney general Eric Holder, signed a letter criticising Comey’s decision.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, was elated. “We never thought we were going to say ‘thank you’ to Anthony Weiner,” the Republican presidential nominee told a rally in Nevada.

Did Comey abuse his power?

The nearly 100 former officials criticised his actions in their open letter, which was released by the Clinton campaign. “Director Comey’s letter is inconsistent with prevailing department policy, and it breaks with longstanding practices followed by officials of both parties during past elections,” they said.

In another scathing letter to Comey, the Democratic Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, accused him of clear intent to aid one party over another. “I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election,” Reid wrote. “Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”

Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, said he had filed a complaint against the FBI for a possible violation of the Hatch Act.

What is the Hatch Act?

Passed in 1939, it forbids anyone in the executive branch (apart from the president or vice-president) from using his or her official position to engage in political activity.

Carolyn Lerner, head of the US Office of Special Counsel, wrote in the New York Times five years ago: “At its best, [the act] prevents people in political power from abusing their positions. It prohibits coercion by a government supervisor – such as pressuring employees to volunteer for or contribute to a campaign – and shields the civil service and the federal workplace from politicking.”

In July, the housing secretary, Julian Castro, was found to have violated the Hatch Act when he expressed support for Clinton. Comey’s action, however, is less blatantly partisan and a case against him would be tough to prove in court.

The Republican congressman Trey Gowdy told Fox News on Monday: “It is laughable that Jim Comey committed a violation of the Hatch Act. I actually know what the Hatch Act is.”

Demonstrating a selective reading of the act, he continued: “If the president of the United States actively campaigning on company time for another candidate to be president of the United States is not a violation of the Hatch Act, then how is Jim Comey supplementing the record and telling the truth to Congress a violation of the Hatch Act?

“Harry Reid knows that this is not a violation.”

So why did Comey do it?

Will Hillary Clinton lose the US election because of the FBI email investigation? Read more

He told FBI colleagues in a memo on Friday he was aware his letter was at risk of being misunderstood, but felt obliged to notify Congress about the new emails after having told lawmakers that the matter was closed.

There have been reports that some members of the FBI were in revolt over Comey’s earlier decision not to recommend charges against Clinton, and that he feared word of the new email investigation would leak to the media, leading to accusations of a cover-up, especially if it happened after 8 November. He therefore regarded going public now as the least worst option.

Will these events affect the election result?

Possible but not probable. More than 23 million people have already voted and there is little evidence of movement so far. Clinton still has a three-point lead over Trump, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted after Comey’s intervention. And a CBS/YouGov survey of likely voters across 13 battleground states showed that only 1% of Clinton supporters were less likely to vote for her after the announcement.

Her campaign said its own volunteers had been fired up and this would kill any danger of complacency. Nevertheless, Trump believes he has some fresh momentum from a saga he has described as “bigger than Watergate”.

Whichever candidate is dominating the headlines tends to find their poll ratings going down. Clinton probably has enough of a cushion but the bombshell might yet affect tight races for the House and Senate.

• This article was amended on 1 November 2016. An earlier version described Harry Reid as the House minority leader; he is leader of the Democrats in the Senate.