WASHINGTON (AP) — A government official tells The Associated Press that the Justice Department had advised the FBI against telling Congress about new developments in the Hillary Clinton email investigation because of the potential fallout so close to the election.
The FBI says it recently came upon new emails possibly pertinent to that investigation. Director James Comey said in a letter to Congress that the FBI discovered the emails while pursuing an unrelated case and would review whether they were classified.
The government official says the Justice Department concluded the letter would be inconsistent with department policy that directs against investigative actions that could be seen as affecting an election or helping a particular candidate.
The official says Comey made the decision to go ahead with the letter independently of the Justice Department.
The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the department’s internal deliberations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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