Hillary Clinton email scandal: What do we know so far? Is it political dynamite?

Washington: The FBI has lit a fuse under Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House, announcing it would investigate newly discovered emails related to her controversial private email server.

The story is far from over.

What we know so far

The bare minimum – but it's just enough to make this political dynamite. The FBI is again examining Clinton's controversial private email server because it uncovered a batch of emails while examining a computer jointly used by Clinton aide and confidante Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, the disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner, while investigating Weiner's latest sexting scandal – in this case his suggestive messages to a teenage girl in North Carolina. The Wall Street Journal reports the FBI are investigating 650,000 emails, some of which were sent to or from Hillary Clinton's private email server.

Federal law enforcement officials uncovered the new emails after seizing devices belonging to top Clinton confidante Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner.Credit: AP

It now appears the FBI served a warrant for Weiner's computer on October 3 and that it had known for weeks it had the emails before it told FBI Director James Comey.

On Sunday night, the FBI said it has obtained a warrant to begin searching the cache of emails belonging to Abedin, according to The New York Times.

What we don't know

Are these new emails? Presumably yes, because Comey had to know that in writing to congress about their discovery, he was lighting a fuse under the Clinton campaign. But insiders also cautioned that some of the 'new' emails were likely to be duplicates of those already investigated by the FBI.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets members of the audience after speaking at a rally at Theodore Roosevelt High School.Credit: AP

What happens now?

Unclear – because Comey was silent on whether this is a procedural ticking of boxes or a full-throttle reopening of an investigation that has the potential to throw what many, even Republicans, viewed as Clinton's glide passage to the Oval Office. The language of Comey's letter suggests that he was responding to a preliminary FBI conclusion that this is a serious issue – his letter to congress states: "I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation".

FBI director James Comey has put himself at the heart of the presidential election.Credit: AP

What's the issue?

The law requires that classified information be exchanged only through secure government communications. An earlier FBI investigation found potential violations of the law, with classified documents going through the private email server, but its decision not to charge her was based on a failure to find evidence of intentional mishandling of such information, indications of disloyalty to the US or efforts to obstruct justice.

Hillary Clinton at a rally at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa.Credit: AP

Do we get a result before Election Day?

Comey didn't give a timeline, but given that the earlier FBI investigation took all of a year and given reports that Abedin would have exchanged thousands of emails with Clinton and their colleagues, it can't be presumed that this new investigation will be concluded in a matter of days.

Early voters cast their ballots on electronic voting machines in Lancaster, Ohio, on Saturday.Credit: Bloomberg

What will voters make of it?

Clinton is winning because she is not as appalling as Donald Trump. But after Trump, she is the second most distrusted candidate ever to seek the presidency, so news that she is again under criminal investigation will play badly. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in September found that more than 60 per cent of respondents disapproved of how she responded to questions on the email issue; about half of them strongly disapproved of her explanation of the private email server; and 56 per cent disapproved of Comey's decision not to lay criminal charges.

A Trump supporter wears a 'Crooked Hillary for prison' T-shirt at a rally at Regent University, Virginia Beach.Credit: AP

Impact on voting

Clinton and Trump have their rusted on supporters. But in the vital swing states news like this has the potential to make some who were ambivalent about Clinton throw up their hands and not bother to vote; Republicans who could not bring themselves to pull the lever for Trump, might give him a reprieve. Voting is not compulsory, so its all about voter turnout.

Hillary Clinton conceded defeat. Credit: AP

What has Clinton said?

In a Friday news conference in Des Moines, she demanded that the FBI release more information on what it had found "without delay". On Saturday in Florida she was more conspiratorial stating: "It's pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information, right before an election. In fact, it's not just strange; it's unprecedented and it is deeply troubling." Spinning it as best she could, Clinton added: She had said she was "confident that whatever [the FBI has found] will not change the conclusion reached in July".

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Friday, Oct. 28, 2016.Credit: AP

Her campaign director John Podesta was apoplectic – even as he tried to hose it down. He said in a statement: "It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election. [Comey] owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining." He has maintained that line and the pressure on Comey.

In her latest speech, on Sunday, to an African-American congregation, Clinton skirted the issue saying instead: "those of us who are people of faith know that getting back up is what we are called to do".

What has Trump said?

He's beside himself – after weeks of lambasting the FBI as a part of what he parses as a grand conspiracy to rig the election against him, he's taken to singing Comey's praises.

"I have great respect of the FBI for righting​ this wrong…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."

A re-energised Trump upped his 'Crooked Hillary' chants, on Sunday telling a Las Vegas rally "[she] has nobody but herself to blame for her mounting legal problems. Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful".

What has Comey said?

Not much apart from advising his own staff in an internal FBI memo of his writing to Congress. In it he said he felt "an obligation to do so, given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed," The Washington Post reported."Of course, we don't ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here… I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record."

Updated on October 31