10 questions and answers about the FBI examination of Hillary Clinton emails

WASHINGTON — Just days before Election Day, and with voters in many states already going to the polls, the FBI director made a stunning announcement Friday: Agents had discovered new emails that might be relevant to the completed investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server, a case that she had seemingly put behind her in July.

Never in modern history has the FBI been so enmeshed in a presidential race. With a vague 166-word statement to Congress, the FBI sent jolts through the campaign, leaving many voters puzzling over what to make of a case involving national security secrets, a disgraced congressman, racy text messages and a dispute among the country's top law enforcement officers.

Here's what we know so far.

Q: What happened on Friday?

A: The FBI director, James Comey, sent a letter to Congress that said agents had uncovered new emails that may be connected to the Clinton investigation. That investigation had examined whether Clinton and her aides had mishandled classified information by sending it through Clinton's private email server. The inquiry was completed in July with no charges filed.

Comey said Friday that agents would review the new emails to see whether they contained classified information. The letter was sent 11 days before the presidential election and it set off fierce criticism of Comey for appearing to meddle in politics.

[As Clinton avoids talking about emails on campaign trail, Trump ramps up attack]

The FBI director's letter did not reopen the Clinton inquiry, though some Republicans, including Donald Trump, characterized the move that way. Agents could open a new inquiry if they find evidence that the earlier investigation had been impeded or that classified materials had been intentionally mishandled.

Q: Where did these new emails come from?

A: Comey did not say in his letter. But law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said agents had discovered the emails on a laptop owned by Anthony Weiner, a disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin.

Last month, the FBI began investigating allegations that Weiner had exchanged sexually explicit messages with a teenager. On Oct. 3, agents in New York executed a search warrant to obtain Weiner's iPhone, an iPad and the laptop. Searching the laptop, they found evidence of a trove of emails similar to ones that had been examined in the Clinton investigation.

Comey decided last week that agents should examine those emails to determine whether they contained national security information. That requires a court order, and officials said agents had not yet begun reading the emails.

Q: Why does the FBI care if there is classified information in the emails?

A: Under federal law, mishandling national security information is a crime, one that the FBI is responsible for investigating. In 2015, the bureau began investigating the personal email account Clinton had used exclusively as secretary of state. As part of that investigation, the bureau tried to find every electronic device — phones, tablets, computers — that Clinton and her aides used.

Agents could not find many of them, including several of Clinton's cellphones and two iPads. The agents knew that those devices, and others they were not aware of, might someday surface. But they completed the Clinton case because they found no evidence that anyone had intentionally broken the law.

The newly discovered emails may — or may not — provide new information to the FBI.

Q: Why did Comey send the letter?

A: In July, Comey told Congress that the Clinton investigation was complete but that if new information came to light, the bureau would examine it.

Comey pledged to be as transparent as he could with Congress about the investigation, and has since made public hundreds of pages of documents related to the inquiry. According to senior FBI officials, Comey felt that he would be breaking his pledge of transparency to Congress if he did not reveal the new information from the Weiner case. And he believed that the bureau would be accused of suppressing details to benefit Clinton — an accusation he believed could do lasting damage to the FBI's credibility.

Q: What does all of this mean for Clinton and her campaign?

A: The short answer is that it is not yet clear. Polling on weekends can be unreliable, so it may be a few days before the impact of the development can be fully assessed. What is evident is that a campaign that has largely been a referendum on Trump — particularly since the first debate — is now not so clear-cut. The email development will certainly matter, but the question is just how much.

Twenty million people have voted, and millions more have determined whom they will support. The country was politically polarized before this election, and opinions are overwhelmingly cemented about these two household-name nominees.

The email news could matter most in down-ballot races. After being on the defensive for weeks because of Trump's behavior, Republican candidates now have a more helpful news media environment in which to make their closing arguments. And Republican voters who are otherwise demoralized may have been given one final nudge to show up to the polls.

Q: Who is upset with Comey for sending the letter?

A: Many Democrats and even some Republicans, who have called the letter vague, troubling and unprecedented. Senior officials at the Justice Department urged Comey not to send the letter, saying it violated the spirit of long-standing policies not to discuss current investigations or do anything that could be seen as meddling in an election.

In the letter, Comey said that the FBI had yet to determine whether "this material may be significant," and that he could not predict how long the review would take. Clinton's campaign has pushed Comey to release more information about the emails.

Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, said, "By providing selective information, he has allowed partisans to distort and exaggerate to inflict maximum political damage." He added, "Comey has not been forthcoming with the facts."

Two former senior Justice Department officials, one from a Democratic administration and one from a Republican one, wrote an op-ed article in The Washington Post saying that Comey was "damaging democracy."

Q: What happens now?

A: In the coming days, the FBI will begin conducting a smaller version of the larger investigation it completed in July. Agents will go through the emails found on the laptop to determine whether they contain classified information.

If so, the bureau will again look at the question of whether anyone intentionally committed a crime. Clinton campaign officials have said Abedin gave the authorities all the electronic devices she believed had work-related emails on them. Many of the newly discovered messages are likely to be duplicates of others the FBI has already examined, investigators say. The review will be conducted by the same Washington-based FBI agents who led the investigation into Clinton's emails. FBI agents are all but certain it will not be completed by Election Day, and believe it will take at least several weeks.

Neither Justice Department officials nor FBI agents say they know what to expect from Comey over the coming days. Normally, investigations are conducted secretly, but Comey's public remarks have opened him up to demands from both campaigns that he make as much information public as possible as soon as it is available.

Q: Is anyone in legal jeopardy?

A: The FBI did not recommend charges in July because agents had found no evidence that anyone had tried to impede their investigation or intentionally mishandle classified materials. If the new emails indicate that type of behavior, the FBI will most likely want to investigate further.

Q: How rare is it for the FBI to make a development like this public?

A: Extremely rare. At times during trials or after cases are closed, the FBI finds new evidence and either discloses it to defense lawyers or reopens a case. An FBI director has never made such a disclosure to Congress so close to a presidential election.

Q: How did Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Justice Department feel about Comey's letter?

A: Senior Justice Department officials tried to discourage Comey from sending the letter, saying it would violate department guidelines that advise against talking about current criminal investigations or being seen as meddling in elections.

They urged Comey not to do anything before Election Day, and they said he should tell Congress when agents had read the emails, understood whether they were relevant and could put them in context. They stopped short, however, of issuing a direct order prohibiting him from sending the letter.