The FBI still has not obtained a search warrant to review the new emails related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server, Yahoo News reported Saturday, citing three government officials who were briefed on the investigation.
According to one of the officials, FBI Director James Comey "had no idea what was in the content of the emails" when he wrote his letter to Congress Friday announcing the existence of new emails that appeared to be "pertinent" to the completed investigation into Clinton's private email server.
The emails were reportedly discovered after the FBI seized the laptop of former congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI has been investigating Weiner since September in a probe related to his alleged sexting with a 15-year-old girl.
A senior law enforcement official told Yahoo News that "discussions are underway" between the FBI and the Department of Justice on how the situation will proceed.
The DOJ had warned the FBI against alerting Congress to the existence of the emails, according to media reports on Saturday. Announcing the investigation went against longstanding tradition, and could be perceived as influencing, or attempting to influence, the looming election, the reports said.
Comey, who has faced heat from the Clinton campaign and its allies for his vague letter to Congress, told FBI employees in a letter Friday that he felt compelled to inform Congress of the new developments.
"We don't ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed," Comey said, noting his testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record."
Clinton and some of her top campaign aides on Saturday urged Comey to release more information on what it had found.
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