The ranking members of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees are calling on the FBI to quickly elaborate on the letter it sent to lawmakers Friday announcing that new emails had been uncovered that may pertain to Hillary Clinton’s email server investigation.
{mosads}In a letter to FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) say the vaguely worded letter has sparked a storm of speculation.
“Although Director Comey’s letter was clear that none of the new material identified by the FBI may be ‘significant,’ the letter provided such limited and vague information that it allowed rampant speculation, numerous leaks, and wild accusations just 11 days before the presidential election,” they wrote.
“In fairness to everyone involved, we are writing to request that the FBI and Department of Justice issue a more complete accounting of the details behind this letter, based on information from your career investigators and prosecutors, in order to debunk those conspiracy theories and correct the public records.”
In an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC Friday night, Cummings called on Comey to come forth with more details before the weekend was over, but said the director was backed into a corner with Republicans angry over the FBI’s recommendation not to press charges against Clinton back in July.
“I’m asking the director right now that he would not let this weekend go by without providing clarification into what this letter means because I think that would be fair to Mrs. Clinton and fair to the American people,” Comey said.
“Once he opened that door, I think basically what he’s doing is trying to make sure when they put a microscope on this process that he can say that I gave you a heads up, and it’s not rigged,” Cummings added. “But still I’m hoping that he will provide this information before the weekend is out.”