Daily Times

WASHINGTON: It seems the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is hell-bent on declaring Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a corrupt person, hence unable to become commander-in-chief.

The FBI investigators discovered possible evidence of corruption linked to the Clinton Foundation in secret recordings from an unrelated investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported.

However, just like before the Justice Department officials discouraged the FBI from pursuing those leads. The Justice Department had also advised FBI director James B Comey against reopening the investigation against Clinton for using private email server, just before the elections. The FBI director ignored those advised and had informed the lawmakers, last week, about the existence of new evidence against Clinton that she may have compromised the national security by using private email server to send thousands of official and secret emails.

In the latest instance, the FBI agents believed they had enough evidence to pursue an investigation into whether Clinton Foundation donors got special treatment from the State Department while Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, was secretary of state, wrote the WSJ.

Justice Department officials reportedly sent a “stand down” order to all offices involved in the case. They thought the evidence was not enough to pursue the case against Clinton and her Foundation.

The FBI has been investigation the corruption case against Clinton Foundation for more than a year. Fox News reported that an indictment is likely in the Clinton Foundation investigation anytime soon.

The Democratic candidate already denied any wrongdoing. However, in the final week of the campaign, Republic candidate Donald Trump, his campaign managers and surrogates were capitalising on the new revelation by the FBI director.

The news of FBI in possession of secret recording in Clinton Foundation investigation would provide more munitions to Trump.

Wayne Barrett, an investigative journalist and author, claimed the Trump close aides might have known in advance what the FBI director was going to reveal last week.

Barrett is author of Trump: The Deals & The Downfall (1992, republished in 2016 as Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth) and Rudy! An Investigative Biography.

“I think he’s [Donald Trump] got a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I’m talking about some pretty big surprises,” Barrett quoted the New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, telling Fox News.

Leading “lock-her-up” chants at Trump rallies, Giuliani spent decades of his life as a federal prosecutor and then mayor working closely with the FBI.

The Daily Beast, who owns Newsweek, wrote that one of Giuliani’s security firms employed a former head of the New York FBI office, and other alumni of it. It was agents of that office, probing Anthony Weiner’s alleged sexting of a minor, who pressed Comey to authorize the review of possible Hillary Clinton-related emails on a Weiner device that led to the explosive letter the director wrote to Congress.

Weiner, a disgraced former Congressman was husband of Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin. On his computer the FBI agent found thousands of emails, exchanged between Clinton and Abedin.

Giuliani asserted the FBI director was forced by a group of FBI agents to write letter to the lawmakers telling them that the FBI would reopen investigation against Clinton.

Along with Giuliani’s other connections to New York FBI agents, his former law firm, then called Bracewell Giuliani, has long been general counsel to the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA), which represents 13,000 former and current agents. Clinton lost a few points against Trump in the latest polls after the FBI announcement. Majority American voters now consider Trump more honest than Clinton.

While Trump campaign asserted that Clinton emails breached the national security, President Barak Obama told 60 Minutes, last October, that emails were not a national security issue. Slim Lead: In a latest New York Times/CBS News poll, Clinton holds a slight edge over Trump after a month of tumult. Most voters say their minds are made up and late revelations about both candidates made no significant difference to them.

Just five days before Election Day, the margin between the candidates is narrow, with 45 percent of likely voters supporting Clinton to 42 percent for Trump.

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has the support of 5 percent of likely voters, and the Green Party nominee, Jill Stein, takes 4 percent.

More than 22 million Americans have already cast their ballots, and roughly one in five likely voters who participated in the Times/CBS poll said they had already voted.

After a rough few weeks, enthusiasm among Trump’s supporters has rebounded, and 52 percent now say they are very enthusiastic about voting. Enthusiasm among Clinton’s supporters has remained flat since September, with 47 percent saying they are very enthusiastic to vote.