Washington: Dmocrat Hillary Clinton heads into the final day of a tight White House race against Republican Donald Trump on Monday with new momentum after the FBI\u2019s announcement that no criminal charges were forthcoming in the probe of her email practices.
\nBoth Clinton and Trump will spend the day racing across a handful of key battleground states that could swing Tuesday\u2019s election, which polls show is extremely close but tilting toward Clinton.
\nFBI Director James Comey sent shockwaves through the race by telling Congress on Sunday that investigators had worked \u201caround the clock\u201d to complete a review of newly discovered emails and found no reason to change their July finding that Clinton was not guilty of criminal wrongdoing in her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
\nWhether the announcement came in time to change minds or undo any damage from days of Republican attacks on Clinton as corrupt was uncertain. Tens of millions of Americans had cast early votes in the 10 days since Comey first told Congress of the newly discovered emails.
\nClinton\u2019s Democratic allies hoped the FBI finding would be enough to push her over the finish line and end the uncertainty and Republican attacks on her character that dogged her campaign for the last 10 days.
\n\u201cThe FBI\u2019s swift and thorough review should finally close the door on this Republican sideshow,\u201d House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said, adding the election would now be decided \u201con the merits of the candidates\u201d rather than innuendo.
\nBut Republicans kept up their criticism of Clinton despite Comey\u2019s announcement.
\n\u201cShe simply believes she\u2019s above the law and always plays by her own rules,\u201d House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement, arguing that Clinton\u2019s use of a private email server \u201ccompromised our national security.\u201d
\nThe latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he allegedly sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
\nFederal investigators got a warrant to examine the emails o see if they were related to the probe into Clinton\u2019s private server. Democrats reacted angrily to Comey\u2019s intrusion into the race and demanded quick action in examining the emails.
\n\u201cI am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time,\u201d Comey said on Sunday.
\nAlmost all the emails turned out to be copies of previously examined ones.
\nBut Democrats did not let Comey and the FBI off the hook. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said Sunday\u2019s announcement made Comey\u2019s earlier letter \u201ceven more troubling\u201d and called for the Justice Department to review its procedures to prevent similar actions to influence future elections.
\nU.S. stock index futures rose more than 1 percent after the FBI announcement and the U.S. dollar also strengthened in Asian trading against major currencies.
\nMarkets have tended to see Clinton as the status quo candidate, and news favoring her bid often boosts investors\u2019 risk appetite. Global financial markets slipped last week as opinion polls showed the presidential race tightening.
\nClinton did not mention the FBI finding during her last two campaign events on Sunday, but Trump was blunt in questioning the thoroughness of the renewed probe and saying the issue would not go away.
\n\u201cThe investigation will go on, the rank-and-file special agents won\u2019t let her get away with her terrible crimes,\u201d he told supporters in Sterling Heights, Michigan, on Sunday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington: Dmocrat Hillary Clinton heads into the final day of a tight White House race against Republican Donald Trump on Monday with new momentum after the FBI\u2019s announcement that no criminal charges were forthcoming in the probe of her email practices. Both Clinton and Trump will spend the day racing across a handful of key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n