# FBI is re-opening investigation into Clinton's email **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 28, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950 "2016-10-28T17:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/281 "2016-10-29T23:46:35Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > The New York Magazine did a very devastating article on the final days of the Trump campaigne. > > After his attack on the Kahn family: > > :smack: > > But the important to this thread paragraph is this one: > > Yes, **that was a senior Trump adviser**. The theme of the article is about how the Trump staffers are preparing to continue their careers after the end of the Trump campaign. **FBI is re-opening investigation into Clinton’s email.** No, no, no, look over there: Trump!! ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/282 "2016-10-29T23:46:39Z")
> [@furt](#): > > 1. Much of the info originally provided to the FBI was not in digital format, but [physically printed out](http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/11/technology/security/hillary-email-paper/index.html) in a bid to make life harder on the investigators (and presumably hide the metadata). So unless the FBI subsequently re-digitized these, we’re talking not talking about running digital queries, but about huge stacks of paper. Yeah, that was a real dick move. In any normal litigation, the judge would demand that they be produced in a more useful format, or in the parlance, “as kept in the normal course of business” which definitely isn’t paper form. In a civil investigation, the government just demands that we hand everything over in native form. They’d definitely digitize the emails. It’d be the very first thing they do. It’s the best way to track everything; working in paper is a nightmare. Paper might as well be a dirty word in the business. Scanning 55,000 pages probably won’t even take too long; between one and three days, depending on vendor capacity, with cost of about $5,500-$6,000. OCR of the documents could probably be done in about 10 hours. Getting them in PDF or paper would limit some things, like deduplication. An email and a PDF of an email are not the same file and wouldn’t get deduplicated. Even two scans of the same email almost surely wouldn’t get deduplicated because there’d be slight differences in the file. Believe it or not, if it’s still formatted as an email should be, it you can still thread the emails even without metadata. I’ve actually seen it work. When exchanging documents in litigation, we have a specific format that we use, but smaller boutique firms don’t have the same software that’s available to larger firms, so it’s not unusual to see documents exchanged as PDFs. Of course, I’d QC it harder than normal to determine the threading’s accuracy, but you could definitely use it to remove some documents from the review set as well as focus in on emails that you’d most want to see. Of limited but additional use in this case would be a textual duplication comparison. Basically, you remove all the punctuation and spaces and compare the text to every other document’s text. It’s far from perfect, and I normally only use it to find various drafts of contracts, but you could potentially use it to eliminate documents from your initial review set. So long story short, it’s more difficult, but there are still plenty of options regarding limiting the data set and finding relevant documents. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/283 "2016-10-29T23:51:59Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > Comey was very careful to leave himself the possibility of coming back in twelve days and saying, “Yeah, sorry - turns out they were swapping Twilight fanfics. Never mind!” Now THAT would be a scandal! ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/284 "2016-10-29T23:56:08Z")
> [@Sinaptics](#): > > They’d definitely digitize the emails. It’d be the very first thing they do. It’s the best way to track everything; working in paper is a nightmare. Paper might as well be a dirty word in the business. Scanning 55,000 pages probably won’t even take too long; between one and three days, depending on vendor capacity, with cost of about $5,500-$6,000. OCR of the documents could probably be done in about 10 hours… Thanks for the insight. IMO, that would certainly suggest that what they’re likely dealing with here are many new emails, previously unread by the FBI, not just new copies of stuff they already have. ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/285 "2016-10-30T00:06:07Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > Is it true that Hillary wouldn’t be in this predicament if she’d just been forthcoming and released everything from the beginning? I guess I’m not sure of the nature of this new information (if any) that has come to light. If all of the emails found are ones that were sent by Abedin, then Hillary’s disclosure or non-disclosure would not have brought these to light before if Hillary was not the one who either sent them or was sent them. FBI officials have not explained why they deemed these news email “pertinent” to their previous investigation or even whether any of it actually implicates Hillary, her aides, or are just additional copies of emails that were already disclosed. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/286 "2016-10-30T00:09:27Z")
Carl Bernstein comments are interesting. His years of investigative reporting give him unique insight into the FBI and government. Bernstein has attacked Trump in multiple articles. Calling him a con man, pathological liar etc. Google if you’re interested. He’s no Trump supporter. [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/10/28/bernstein\_fbi\_would\_not\_reopen\_case\_unless\_new\_evidence\_was\_a\_real\_bombshell.html](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/10/28/bernstein_fbi_would_not_reopen_case_unless_new_evidence_was_a_real_bombshell.html) > [@](#): > > Right now we’re all talking in a vacuum but I want to add here that in the last, oh, 36, 48 hours, there has been an undercurrent of kind of speculative discussion among some national security people that something might surface in the next few days about e-mails, and I think the expectation in this chatter – and I took it as just chatter but informed chatter, to some extent ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/287 "2016-10-30T00:14:14Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > **FBI is re-opening investigation into Clinton’s email.** > > No, no, no, look over there: Trump!! Since the fist part here is not correct, your post is very underwhelming. In any case, Trump and family do think that they and the Republicans’ pressure applied to Comey is the reason why that letter was made before anything was really found or if it was going to change the status of the investigation regarding what they found about Clinton already. I think I agree with other, this is really mostly a nothing burger and I’m not going to let the Republicans escape blame for making political hay about this issue. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/288 "2016-10-30T00:46:48Z")
As of right now, the FBI doesn’t have a warrant to read the emails. > **[Exclusive: FBI still does not have warrant to review new Abedin emails linked...](https://www.yahoo.com/news/comey-wrote-bombshell-letter-to-congress-before-fbi-had-reviewed-new-emails-220219586.html)** > > When FBI Director James Comey wrote his bombshell letter to Congress on Friday about newly discovered emails that were potentially “pertinent” to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, agents had not been able to review any of... ---
**Author:** ![aag3981](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@aag3981](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aag3981)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/289 "2016-10-30T02:09:56Z")
> [@furt](#): > > 1. Much of the info originally provided to the FBI was not in digital format, but [physically printed out](http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/11/technology/security/hillary-email-paper/index.html) in a bid to make life harder on the investigators (and presumably hide the metadata). So unless the FBI subsequently re-digitized these, we’re talking not talking about running digital queries, but about huge stacks of As the Clinton team arrived at the State Department in 2009, the department was in the process of rolling out a new preservation system that allowed employees to electronically tag emails to preserve a record copy. The system was supposed to be rolled out departmentwide, but S/ES-IRM didn’t actually deploy it to the secure zone of Mahogany Row amid concerns that it would “allow overly broad access to sensitive materials.” The Office of the Secretary instead was left with the traditional “print-and-file” system. So the State Department’s new preservation system never even reached into its top echelons on the seventh floor, a fact that Lewis Lukens—the official who supposedly ran the executive leadership team—told the FBI he didn’t even realize. Read more: [http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-emails-2016-server-state-department-fbi-214307#ixzz4OWvzPerX](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-emails-2016-server-state-department-fbi-214307#ixzz4OWvzPerX)  Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook Hillary turned in stakes of paper because that was what was required. It had nothing to do with making investigators life hard. Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![aag3981](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@aag3981](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aag3981)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/290 "2016-10-30T02:28:34Z")
Poor Comey. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. This guy had no problem telling eager Republicans that there would be no charges for Hillary a few months back. He has no problem letting people know some new material was found and his department was reviewing it. If he waited until he knew what was in the emails, he would have been criticised for that. He didn’t announce this to the public and his letter said he did not know if there was any significance in the emails. I think it’s CYA. Not saying its right. This stuff isn’t generally reported out for a reason but I see how this case is not your typical case. Does suck though. Especially if it costs the Dems the Senate. Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/291 "2016-10-30T02:29:05Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > As of right now, the FBI doesn’t have a warrant to read the emails. > > [Exclusive: FBI still does not have warrant to review new Abedin emails linked to Clinton probe](https://www.yahoo.com/news/comey-wrote-bombshell-letter-to-congress-before-fbi-had-reviewed-new-emails-220219586.html) How do they know it’s pertinent if they don’t know what’s in them? Just because they are Abedin emails? She was his wife! ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/292 "2016-10-30T04:09:49Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > How do they know it’s pertinent if they don’t know what’s in them? … They don’t. They “appear to be” because they involve Clinton’s close aide. Wha is very clear is that there are no new allegations being made. Comey became aware that there are emails of Huma’s in the Justice department’s possession. Because they are Huma’s they may be pertinent and therefore they want to look at them. They have not looked at them yet. In Comey’s words, in his letter, they are wanting to take the “steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails” … The clear reading of the text of his letter is that they have not yet been allowed to review them and they therefore have no idea what is in them. My first take on this was that he had been behaving appropriately. As more is revealed it is very clear that he has not been, that he went against clear normal procedures and inserted himself into an election process. Ethically he is obligated to publicly explicitly clarify that his team has not seen any of the emails and that his letter implies nothing more than that a request to look at them. That they have no reason to believe or to suggest that their determination made will change. Not doing that after going against established guidelines and inserting himself into the process should be cause for dismissal. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/293 "2016-10-30T05:09:28Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > The average person has IQ around 100. Which is basically saying the average person is average. You are correct. The first average needs to be changed to half. But the point is strong reasoning skills and fact based debate aren’t as important for winning election as many on a site that has a self selected sample would like to believe. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/294 "2016-10-30T05:30:47Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > The clear reading of the text of his letter is that they have not yet been allowed to review them and they therefore have no idea what is in them. That makes no sense though. If they looked at the emails and saw something that made it worth re-opening the investigation, that would make sense. I’m wondering now if this is the work of disgruntled anti-Clinton agents. I think Comey is above reproach, at least in terms of his impartiality and integrity. But Fox has been reporting that many people under him are very angry that Clinton wasn’t charged. > [@](#): > > My first take on this was that he had been behaving appropriately. As more is revealed it is very clear that he has not been, that he went against clear normal procedures and inserted himself into an election process. That part is understandable though. Comey makes the correct argument himself. Once the public became aware that CLinton was under investigation, he can’t very well conceal that a closed investigation is now re-opened. The circumstances of re-opening the case are dodgy, but Comey’s decision to inform the public once that decision was made makes perfect sense. > [@](#): > > Not doing that after going against established guidelines and inserting himself into the process should be cause for dismissal. If that decision is to be made, it can only be made by Obama. Not that Clinton cares about appearances, but firing the FBI director for an offense her predecessor of the same party chose to not take action on would look like a case of simple revenge. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/295 "2016-10-30T05:52:50Z")
Here’s a hypothesis: An agent or agents have actually seen what was in the emails, and considers it to be huge. But they can’t say they already looked at the emails because that’s inadmissible. So they need a warrant to make it official. And the warrant has to be publicly requested for fear the Justice Department will deny it for political reasons. None of this makes sense unless agents know something big is there. Even if we assume rogue agents who want to beat Clinton, they need a warrant to access the information legally and then leak it to the press. Criminality is irrelevant in that case, because the intent would be to sway voters. If it looks bad enough, it has the desired effect. ---
**Author:** ![aag3981](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@aag3981](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aag3981)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/296 "2016-10-30T05:58:34Z")
Or, they don’t know what’s in the emails (as Comet said) but feel obligated to report a new development in a very publicized investigation (as Comet said). Why read into anything that isn’t there? Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/297 "2016-10-30T06:09:29Z")
Or this is a non-story, there’s absolutely nothing new here, and the GOP tripped over its own dick trying to spin a routine matter into yet another nontroversy. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/298 "2016-10-30T06:12:07Z")
That only makes sense when the source is only the GOP. Too often, Clinton supporters claim it’s all a GOP misinformation campaign when the source is the Obama administration itself or the NY Times or CNN. Democrats apparently have a lot of enemies in the Obama administration. Inspector Generals, now the FBI. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/299 "2016-10-30T06:23:45Z")
[Well, if we are going for hypotheses then this one is valid too:] Or, there are rogue agents that saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. AFAIK it is likely that there are right wing people in the FBI that do hate the guts of Comey for not “delivering” in the past, so a setup presented here, they noticed emails that may be relevant, does not matter if they are duplicates of the ones released. Right then they realized a golden opportunity… They knew that the issue of getting a warrant would prevent them from getting vetted information to judge the matter properly. So how to make hay out of this to get Clinton? They tell Comey and with the help of the Republicans in congress they goad Comey into making the nonsense letter, they also did convince Comey that the letter was obligatory, “trust us Comey, you have to be fair, we have your back…” Then stand back to see Comey and Clinton now having no proper way to respond to the fallout. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950/300 "2016-10-30T06:30:16Z")
That could very well be what’s going on. That’s why Fox is useful. They have all the anonymous right wing sources, which often gives them information Democrats would rather not consider credible, but this time it actually works for Democrats. We know there are angry career FBIers who wants Clinton’s scalp, so it’s not unreasonable to think they mean to get it by other means. They even have a rationalization: they believe Comey didn’t recommend prosecution for political reasons, then they’ll use politics to take down Clinton. To be honest, it would be just desserts if Clinton lost and these FBI agents were revealed, but that they did nothing illegal. WHich in Clintonworld, means it was allowed and they in no way acted improperly.🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-is-re-opening-investigation-into-clintons-email/769950.md?page=16)