A U.S. Judge on Monday ordered the unsealing of the application used to obtain a search warrant that allowed the FBI to gain access to emails related to Democratic Presidential nominee Clinton's private server before the Nov. 8th Election.
U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan directed the release by Tuesday of redacted materials used to obtain a search warrant after Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28th.
Comey's letter drew new attention to a damaging issue for Clinton, the Democratic Presidential nominee, and roiled the campaign 11 days before the Nov. 8th Election, won by Republican Trump.
Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Abedin claims they were never presented with the warrant to allow the FBI to look at the emails that were not part of the original investigation of Weiner.
In his order, Castel said he would allow the redaction of the identities of two unnamed individuals, one of whom is subject to an "ongoing criminal investigation." But he said the "strong presumption of access attached to the search warrant and related materials is not overcome by any remaining privacy interest of Secretary Clinton."
In July, Comey recommended no criminal charges be brought over Clinton's handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were "extremely careless" in handling such information. In his Oct. 28th letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the Clinton server probe had been discovered in an "unrelated case."
Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into Weiner following a media report that he engaged in sexually explicit cellphone and online messaging with a 15-year-old girl.
Federal investigators got a warrant to examine the emails to see if they were related to the probe into Clinton's private server. Only two days before the Election, Comey later disclosed that the emails, many duplicates of known emails, did nothing to change his earlier recommendation.
UPDATE
A U.S. Court on Dec. 20th, 2016, released a copy of the application used to obtain a search warrant that allowed the FBI to gain access to emails related to a probe of Democratic Presidential nominee Clinton's private server before the Nov. 8th Election.
The filings involving a search warrant issued after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28th were released following an order on Dec. 19th, 2016 by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan.
Comey's letter drew new attention to the use of the server by Clinton while she was Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and roiled the campaign 11 days before the Election.
According to the newly released Court papers, the FBI sought a search warrant two days after Comey's letter on Oct. 30th to review "thousands" of emails on a Toshiba laptop. Those emails, Comey said in his letter, were found in an "unrelated case."
Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into former Democratic U.S. Representative Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
In an affidavit, an unnamed FBI agent said there was "probable cause" to believe that correspondence between Clinton and an unnamed individual whose name was redacted was located on the laptop, including emails with classified information.
While the affidavit provided no indication that any emails from Clinton or with classified information were actually found on the laptop when the search warrant was sought, it said emails to State Department accounts had been located.
After their review, the emails was duplicates of existing emails already in their position.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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