Jessica Estepa

USA TODAY

FBI Director James Comey's testimony that a top Hillary Clinton aide forwarded "hundreds and thousands" of emails involving her boss was wrong, according to a letter the bureau sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Last week, Comey testified before a Senate committee that Huma Abedin made a "regular practice" of forwarding messages involving Clinton – some of which contained classified information – to her husband, former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. As Comey explained, the top Clinton aide did this so Weiner could print them out.

But FBI officials told ProPublica, which first reported the story, that Comey misstated Abedin's actions.

After the news broke, the FBI sent a letter to the committee clarifying that about 49,000 emails potentially relevant to the investigation into Clinton's use of a private emails server were found on Weiner's laptop. A majority of them ended up on the computer because of backups from Abedin's personal electronic devices.

However, only a "small number" of the emails were forwarded by Abedin, the letter said, even though she "commonly forwarded emails to others who would print documents for her." Of those forwarded to Weiner, only two email chains contained classified information. Ten other email chains that had classified information were on the laptop because of backups.

What's more, all 12 email chains had been previously reviewed by investigators, the letter said.

During the hearing, Comey also said it made him "mildly nauseous" to think his decision to announce the reopening of the probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server 11 days before the November election may have impacted the results.

But he defended the decision to inform lawmakers about the investigations developments after he learned Clinton's emails had been recovered on Weiner's laptop, saying, "I could not see a door labeled, 'No action needed.'"