Comey's bombshell came in week which has seen her poll lead slashed and mounting questions over sleaze from her husband's business activities

At that point her aide abruptly ended the press conference and she refused to engage with shouted questions

She called report that the new emails came from Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin's shared laptop a 'rumor'

Furious Clinton lashed out at agency director James Comey demanding he explain what has happened and publish all relevant material

Campaign holds sudden press conference in Des Moines after regular rally to deal with FBI bombshell


In a furious press conference Hillary Clinton has called on the FBI to release whatever information it has about its restarted investigation of her email scandal 'without delay'.

And she said she did not know 'what to believe' regarding what she called 'rumors' that the new information came from trusted Aide Huma Abedin's laptop – a device she reportedly shared with disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner.

'We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important election of our lifetimes,' Clinton told reporters in a surprise press conference.

'The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.'

At the end, she was asked about the reports, in the New York Times and other outlets, that her aide Abedin and Weiner had been the source of the new emails.

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Fury: Hillary Clinton's anger was clear as she held an impromptu press conference in Des Moines, five hours after the FBI director's bombshell announcement

Claimed ignorance: Clinton said she did not 'know what to think' of the development

The FBI is investigating Weiner's lewd texts with an underage girl, revealed in September by DailyMail.com.

'We've heard these rumors,' said Clinton – who sat near Abedin on her campaign on the flight to Des Moines.

'We don't know what to believe and I'm sure there will be even more rumors. That's why it is incumbent upon the FBI to tell us what they're talking about,' she said.

'Because right now your guess is as good as mine and I don't think that's good enough.'

Clinton gave the press conference inside the choral room of Roosevelt High School in Des Moines – where she held an event meant to stress women's issues and early vote efforts and where she ignored the growing crisis engulfing her campaign.

But her traveling press was fixated completely on the stunning FBI story, which comes after the bureau sensationally reopened their investigation into her secret server after they discovered email exchanges between her and Abedin on the device.

We don't know the facts, which is why we are calling on the FBI to release all the information that it has Hillary Clinton

Asked if she had been contacted by the FBI or whether she was concerned that the new emails would reveal any classified information, Clinton responded to the first part of the question.

'No – we have not been contacted by anyone. First we knew about it is I assume when you knew about it, when this letter sent to Republican members of the House was released.

'So we don't know the facts, which is why we are calling on the FBI to release all the information that it has.'

'Lets get it out,' she said.

She observed that FBI director James Comey had said the new information concerning the emails - which allegedly number more than 1,000 in total - may not be significant.

Comey kicked off Friday's dramatic events after sending a letter to Congress explaining he had launched an investigation into the 'pertinent' exchanges to determine if any of the emails contained classified information.

Clinton was pictured leaving her campaign plane after it landed in New York on Friday night after her campaign was rocked by the news of the FBI probe

A downcast Abedin was also pictured leaving Hillary's campaign plane dressed in an orange winter coat and laden with luggage

And just 11 days before the election while campaigning in a battleground state, Clinton found herself once again discussing her emails – something that has been a driving narrative of her campaign since March.

Asked about trust issues, she responded: 'I think people a long time ago made up their minds about the emails. I think that's factored into what people think, and now they're choosing a president.'

Immediately after Clinton fielded the first Weiner question, her press aide, Nick Merrill, who also selected the questioners, abruptly cut off the brief press event.

'Thanks very much everybody,' Merrill said, escorting Clinton away.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed on Friday that Comey reportedly told bureau staffers in separate memo that he broke custom in telling Congress about the reopening of the investigation because of its political sensitivity.

In the internal memo obtained by Fox News, Comey said the bureau would not ordinarily communicate with the public about its ongoing investigations, but said he felt he needed to do so as amid the looming election.

INTERNAL MEMO FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY SENT TO BUREAU STAFFERS EXPLAINING HIS DECISION ON REOPENING THE CLINTON EMAIL INVESTIGATION To all: This morning I sent a letter to Congress in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation. Yesterday, the investigative team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case. Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them. Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it. Advertisement

He also notes he felt an 'obligation' to inform lawmakers about the investigation given he had testified repeatedly that their investigation into Clinton's email was completed.

'Of course we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed,' Comey wrote in the memo.

'I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.

'At the same time, however, given that we do not know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression.

'In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter, and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.'

Hillary Clinton's campaign released a statement after news broke that the FBI was continuing its email investigation

Toxic texter: Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, photographed on the day DailyMail.com revealed he had sexted a 15-year-old, prompting a renewed FBI probe

Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton spoke on board Clinton's campaign plane just hours before news broke on Friday that the FBI was re-opening its investigation into the presidential nominee's emails after new emails came to light during a separate investigation into Abedin's husband, Anthony Weiner

Bombshell: This was the picture Weiner sent to a 15-year-old girl which prompted an FBI investigation - which now imperils Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House

In the messages, which were obtained by the Dailymail.com, Weiner repeatedly complimented the girl's body, told her that she made him 'hard'. He also sent the girl a selfie from a hot tub

During Clinton's press conference on Friday, she did not respond to shouted questions about a variety of topics, including about whether her campaign had done anything to contain itself from Weiner.

Weiner's reentry into the presidential campaign brought forth an issue that had been an irritant, a curiosity, and then a genuine problem as the lawmaker's sexting scandal unfolded.

Weiner quit Congress following a sexting scandal, but he and estranged wife Abedin elected to stay together and raise their young son, Jordan.

However, it was another Weiner tabloid bombshell when the New York Post revealed that he had been caught sexting again.

Then, DailyMail.com spoke to a 15-year old girl who showed lewd messages she had received from Weiner.

Clinton’s unexpected press event was an effort to turn up the heat on the FBI – and make the best of a bad situation by motivating base voters to go to the polls.

The campaign had already been worrying about complacency among voters who think the election is over.

ANTHONY WEINER SEXTING SCANDAL The FBI, the New York Police Department, and US attorneys in New York and North Carolina opened investigations into Weiner's conduct in late September, after DailyMail.com exclusively reported on Sept. 21 that the former politician carried on a months-long online relationship with a 15-year-old high school girl. Weiner exchanged flirtatious and sexually-charged messages with the teen for months after the girl struck up a conversation with him on Twitter in January. Weiner told the girl he woke up 'hard' after thinking about her, sent her shirtless photos, and complimented her body. He also encouraged her to talk to him on the video-chat application Skype. The girl alleged that during these Skype conversations, Weiner asked her to get undressed and touch herself. She claimed he also asked her to dress up in school girl outfits and pretend he was her teacher and brought up 'rape fantasies.' Weiner issued a statement to the Dailymail.com apologizing for 'repeatedly demonstrate[ing] terrible judgment about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent.' In one particularly lewd message, he told the teen: 'I would bust that tight p***y so hard and so often that you would leak and limp for a week.' Advertisement

Having the campaign appear under attack by a government agency headed by a former Republican could help motivate blasé voters.

The campaign had already released a searing statement from campaign chair John Podesta.

But as media outlets around the country and the world cataloged Clinton’s silence on the stunning development, the campaign concluded it needed to put its candidate forward to face the media.

Clinton questioned the FBI and shared her own lack of knowledge about what was happening, and called on the agency to release what it knows – in effect switching positions with Donald Trump, who has challenged the agency for its handling of the Clinton scandal.

Clinton started the day on Friday having no idea what was to come.

She even sat down for a photo shoot with celebrity photographer Annie Liebovitz. When the shoot was over after a brief period, Clinton’s campaign aides went into a huddle.

That photo shoot was brief. Before her plane landed, its onboard WiFi had failed, Clinton was informed by an aide what had transpired.

She told reporters that she learned about the stunning news at the same time they did.

Clinton was seated near Abedin in the front of her campaign plane throughout the ordeal, who could be spotted on board.

As it turned out, campaign manager Robbie Mook also was on board on Friday.

He briefed reporters on what the campaign thought would be a good story: the ‘Hillary Clinton coalition’ coming together, and the campaign’s brash move into red state Arizona next week.

Instead, he was on hand to oversee damage control. On the short flight form Cedar Rapids to Des Moines, top aides could be seen standing and conferring.

When Clinton walked down the stairs of her plane, she waved.

When Abedin walked down, it was in step with press aide Jennifer Palmieri, who blocked photographers from having a clear sight-line.

Abedin is among Clinton's closest confidants, and the candidate has said she views her almost like a daughter.

Abedin also served as deputy chief of staff at the State Department and holds a senior role at the Clinton campaign.

During Clinton's first campaign engagement on Friday, she simply ignored the crisis and at first it appeared she was going to try to avoid the issue as a distraction.

But then on Friday, Donald Trump, who previously had slammed the bureau, started complimenting its action.

The Clinton campaign concluded it had to hit back, and released a blistering statement from campaign chair John Podesta.

Then at some point, the campaign leadership decided the candidate must address the issue herself.

The first statement did nothing to address trust.

The stern missive was fired off from Podesta 'in response to the letter sent by FBI Director James Comey to eight Republican committee chairman in Congress' – suggesting at the outset that some sort of partisan action was at play.

Ironically Podesta's emails have been published this week by Wikileaks and exposed the inside workings of 'Bill Clinton Inc' and how the Clinton Foundation and the program to make them massively wealthy overlapped when she was Secretary of State.

FBI Director James Comey said in a letter to Congress that an investigative team is seeking to determine if any of the emails contain classified information

At the same time she has taken a dip in the polls, double digit leads recorded in the wake of Trump's notorious 'grab them by the p***y' tape slimming down to four points in the latest national tracker, for the Washington Post/ABC News.

'It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election,' Podesta wrote.

'Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call,' Podesta began his statement.

'In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.'

Trump has repeatedly suggested at his campaign rallies that something was going on at the FBI, after Comey announced this summer that he would not recommend bringing charges against Clinton.

Trump also frequently brings up an airplane tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch shortly before the FBI announced its decision.

Podesta said Comey should 'immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen.'

Bombshell: How James Comey started the extraordinary day of drama

Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta issued a stinging statement about the FBI on Friday

THE TALE OF HILLARY CLINTON'S PRIVATE SERVER The Clintons' Chappaqua home where the server began life June 2008: An Apple Power Mac server, purchased by Bill Clinton's aide Justin Cooper in 2007, is installed in the basement of the Clintons' home in Chappaqua, New York. It initially handles traffic for Bill Clinton but soon is used by Clinton and her staff as well Fall: Computer equipment from Clinton's presidential campaign is tapped as a replacement - a Dell PowerEdge 2900 Windows Server and Microsoft Exchange and a 1950 running a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano starts work on building the system, believing it will be used by Bill Clinton's staff January 2009: It is decided that the Apple server must be replaced as it is having problems with the volume of traffic March: Pagliano installs the server he has built in a rack in the Chappaqua house basement, with the help of Cooper. Pagliano, who is administrator for the new device, transfers the Apple server emails onto the new device. The new server is backed up once a week onto a Seagate external hard drive. The FBI has never obtained the Apple server for examination January 2013: Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryll Mills, recommends Denver, Colorado-based IT firm Platte River Networks (PRN) to manage the server to help with user limitations and reliability concerns Denver-based Platte held a 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'-themed party while at a conference June 23: A Platte employee removes the server from the Chappaqua home to a data center in Secaucus, New Jersey, run by Equinix, to migrate it to a new server June 30: The Clintons' email accounts are migrated to the Platte server July 18: Platte signs an agreement to manage the new, third server, a Dell PowerEdge R620. Platte subsequently configure a backup device from Datto, Inc, a Connecticut-based company, to take multiple snapshots of the system daily and to store the information for 60 days. The device also takes copies of the Pagliano server between June 24-December 23 December 2013: The Pagliano server is fully decommissioned December 2014: Clinton and Abedin begin using the domain hrcoffice and stop using clintonemail.com October 3, 2015: The Pagliano server is voluntarily handed over to the FBI Advertisement

'Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is 'reopening' an investigation but Comey's words do not match that characterization,' Podesta continued.

He said Comey's letter 'refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant.'

The New York Times was first to report that emails were found during the investigation of Weiner after he was caught in September sexting with an underage girl.

Dailymail.com exclusively revealed the shamed ex-Congressman exchanged photos and lewd messages with a 15-year-old girl.

If Clinton wanted an update on that case, she might be able to consult her longtime aide Abedin, who was seated near her on her campaign plane Friday.

'The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July,' Podesta said.

The sense of a new Clinton crisis came as Clinton, a former secretary of state and the Democratic nominee for the White House, collapsed to four points in the latest nationwide survey polling.

After the news broke, Trump who was attending a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, took a victory lap and congratulated the FBI for deciding to take a second look at the case.

'The FBI has just sent a letter to Congress informing them that they have discovered new emails pertaining to the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's investigation,' he said, as 1,600 people erupted in a chant of 'Lock her up!'

'And they are reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America.'

'Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,' Trump declared.

'I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood, and it is everybody's hope that it is about to be corrected.'

Trump told attendees of a campaign rally that the news of the FBI investigation is 'bigger than Watergate', after saying that Clinton's 'corruption is on a scale we have never seen before'

He added a moment later: 'With that being said, the rest of my speech is going to be so boring! Should I even make the speech?'

His jubilant crowd screamed: 'Yeah!'

'The news this morning is – this is bigger than Watergate,' Trump said later in his speech.

In Bensalem, Pennsylvania, Trump's running mate Mike Pence was cheered as he told a rally: 'We commend the FBI for having the courage to re-open this case because no-one is above the law.'

House Speaker Paul Ryan, meanwhile, said in a statement that Clinton 'has nobody but herself to blame' for the re-opened investigation.

'She was entrusted with some of our nation's most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information,' he said.

'This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators.

'I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved,' Ryan said.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Ryan's second-in-command, said the FBI's decision to take another look at the Clinton case 'showcases her fundamental lack of judgment and disregard for protecting and handling of our nation's highly classified secrets'.

McCarthy advised the FBI to conduct its 'investigation expeditiously, and thoroughly brief the American people of its findings in a completely transparent manner'.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a statement saying the FBI's announcement 'played right into the political campaign of Trump, The Washington Post reported.

'The FBI has a history of extreme caution near Election Day so as not to influence the results,' she said. 'Today’s break from that tradition is appalling.'

An hour after the October surprise became public, President Barack Obama emerged from the White House and boarded Marine Force One.

The sitting president, on his way now to Orlando, Florida, to campaign for Clinton, ignored shouted questions about his former cabinet secretary's email scandal.

An hour after the news became public, President Barack Obama emerged from the White House and boarded Marine Force One

As he campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Orlando, Obama urged young voters 'vote up and down the ticket' for Democrats in the run up to the election.

'I understand that right now, the polls show Hillary having a lead,' Obama said during a rally at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, NBC reported.

'Sometimes when you get a lead, whether it's in sports or politics, you start feeling good. You start celebrating too early. You start getting turnovers, you start missing some free throws. Suddenly it gets a little closer.'

'And next thing you know you look up, and you let it slip away,' he added.

Earlier on Friday, Obama spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters riding aboard Marine One that the White House did not coordinate with the FBI on today's bombshell announcement.

'The only notification we've received is the letter that was made public by press reports from Director Comey to Capitol Hill,' Schultz said.

'We had that letter after it was made public, so we did not have advance warning.'

Schultz says the White House heard about the letter through 'press reports'.

He further stated that it is 'the president's expectation is that all FBI efforts follow the facts, wherever they lead…The president believes that decisions made by independent prosecutors must be made independently of politics.'

The White House spokesman said Obama stands firm in his endorsement of his former secretary of state to succeed him in office and is 'proud to support her from now until Election Day.

'I don't think anything has surfaced to change the president's views and opinions of Secretary Clinton,' he said.

Commenting on the development in an interview with Vice News, Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine said it's 'very, very troubling' that the FBI is releasing information about the probe into emails just 11 days before the election.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee said Comey to provide more details on the situation.

THE CLINTON EMAIL CONTROVERSY January 13 2009: Hillary Clinton's aide Justin Cooper sets up clintonemail.com domain. Huma Abedin signs off on it January 21: Clinton is sworn in as Secretary of State 18 March: Clinton stops using her BlackBerry email account and switches to the newly created hdr22@clintonemail.com account. The domain is hosted on her own private email server, set up by her aide Bryan Pagliano September 11, 2012: Four Americans are killed in attack on a U.S. base in Benghazi, Libya including Ambassador Chris Stevens February 1, 2013: Clinton steps down as secretary of state October 28, 2014: State Department demands Clinton's work-related correspondence as part of a congressional investigation into Benghazi Fall 2014: Clinton's lawyers deletes 33,000 emails which they claim are 'personal' December 5, 2014: Clinton's legal team provide roughly 30,000 emails to the State Department when they are demanded by a congressional investigation into Benghazi. March 2 2015: The New York Times breaks the news that Clinton used a personal email account to conduct government business while secretary of state July 25: Clinton says she is confident none of the emails on her private email server were classified at the time of sending and receiving August 4: The Washington Post reveals the FBI has begun looking into the security of Clinton's private email set-up September 10: Bryan Pagliano formally asserts his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions from a Republican-led House committee on her email arrangements July 6, 2016: The Justice Department closes Clinton email probe and FBI Director James Comey announces the FBI won't prosecute. The decision was made by Comey because Attorney General Loretta Lynch had to recuse herself after a secret meeting with Bill Clinton October 7: WikiLeaks begins release of thousands of emails hacked from the Gmail account of John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chair October 28: FBI reopens its investigation into Clinton's server Advertisement

He suggests it is troubling that members of the press are finding out information before campaign officials.

Clinton's attack on the FBI and suggestions of partisanship on the part of Comey are likely to be aimed not just at voters but at disrupting the agency's decision-making process on the email probe.

It was Comey personally who decided not to prosecute Clinton when Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, stepped aside from the email investigation when her secret meeting with Bill Clinton was revealed.

By tarring Comey as partisan, Clinton advisers may be hoping to force him to stand aside from deciding what to do with the conclusions of the investigation.

His deputy Andrew McCabe, who ran the original investigation, is also tainted by questions over his wife accepting $500,000 for her own political campaign from a PAC controlled by Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia governor who is one of the Clintons' longest-standing and most loyal henchmen.

The cumulative effect of recusals of both men could create a vacuum at the top of the agency and the Justice Department at precisely the time a senior figure is needed to decide on whether to prosecute - something which in the short term would be welcomed by embattled Clintonworld.