Donald Trump pounced on the news that the FBI is reviewing new information related to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and expressed hope that the FBI will “right the horrible mistake that they made.”
Trump kicked off his rally here by announcing the “very critical breaking news announcement” to his capacity crowd of supporters, who erupted in cheers and chants of “Lock her up!” as a stern-faced Trump announced, “They are reopening the case into her criminal and illegal conduct that threatens the security of the United States of America.”
FBI Director James Comey announced Friday in a letter to members of Congress that through “an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation” of Clinton’s email server. Comey directed investigators to “review these emails to determine whether they contained classified information.”
The decision comes nearly four months after the FBI recommended no criminal charges following its investigation into Clinton’s private email server.
It also comes just 11 days before Election Day as Trump faces a steep and narrow path to victory following a series of damaging revelations — including sexual assault allegations and audio of Trump bragging about being able to grope women.
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must never let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” Trump said, reading from prepared remarks. “I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made.”
Trump has repeatedly accused the FBI and DOJ of colluding to cover up Clinton’s wrongful use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
And while he made it clear Friday that he was not backing off that claim, Trump appeared cautiously optimistic that the FBI’s latest announcement might finally yield the result he and his supporters have been clamoring for. Trump has argued Clinton should be jailed for storing several pieces of classified information on her private email server and misrepresenting that fact to the American public, though he did not explicitly say Friday that Clinton should be indicted or jailed.
“This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood and it is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected,” Trump said.
Minutes later, he added: “It might not be as rigged as I thought.”
“The FBI, I think they’re going to right the ship, folks, I think they’re going to right the ship and they’re going to save their great reputation by doing so,” Trump said.
While Trump remained stern-faced as he addressed the FBI’s decision to investigate new emails related to Clinton’s email server, Trump’s supporters and his campaign staff were suddenly reinvigorated by the news.
Before supporters erupted in raucous cheers as Trump addressed the news, Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tweeted: “A great day in our campaign just got even better.”