Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made one of his most forceful attacks at the second US presidential debate when he told Hillary Clinton he would assign a special prosecutor to investigate her email scandal.

And I’ll tell you what, I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it and I hate to say it, but if I win I’m going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation – because there’s never been so many lies. So much deception. There’s never been anything like it. And we’re going to have a special prosecutor.

When I speak, the people of this country are furious. In my opinion the people that have been long-term workers at the FBI are furious. There has never been anything like this where emails, and you get a subpoena. You get a subpoena and after getting the subpoena you delete 33,000 emails and then you acid wash them or bleach them – a very expensive process.

So we’re going to get a special prosecutor and we’re going to look into it because people have been, their lives have been destroyed for doing one fifth of what you’ve done, and it’s a disgrace. And honestly you ought to be ashamed of yourself.