Clinton blames FBI director Comey for loss

WASHINGTON // Hillary Clinton has blamed FBI director James Comey for her loss in the US presidential race, claiming that re-opening the investigation into her email use broke the momentum towards victory.

Mrs Clinton told fundraisers and donors on Saturday that Mr Comey’s two letters to congress on the investigation had tilted crucial states towards Republican Donald Trump.

“There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,” Democrat Mrs Clinton told her national finance committee.

“But our analysis is that Jim Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless [and] baseless – and proven to be – stopped our momentum.”

On October 28 – less than two weeks before election day – Mr Comey told congress the FBI was looking once more into Mrs Clinton’s controversial email practices as secretary of state after more messages were uncovered.

His second letter, on November 6, two days before the election, stated that the FBI’s review of the new emails had uncovered no wrongdoing, and that the bureau had not changed its July recommendation not to charge Mrs Clinton.

While the first letter reopened wounds and reminded voters of the controversy, the second letter, according to Mrs Clinton, had the perverse effect of energising rival Mr Trump’s base.

The letters came as Mrs Clinton was building momentum following strong performances at all three presidential debates, and after the release of a damaging recording of Mr Trump boasting about groping women.

“After the third debate we felt so good about where we were,” Mrs Clinton said. The campaign analysis “showed that we were up in all but two of the battleground states, where we were tied or one point behind. In Arizona we were even. We felt real wind at our back”.

But she said the FBI’s last-minute role was too much to “overcome”..

In July, Mr Comey said that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges against Mrs Clinton for handling classified documents and sensitive information on a private email account.

Mr Comey, however, criticised the practice as “extremely careless”.

The FBI chief was criticised for effectively reopening the Clinton investigation so close to the November 8 vote, without knowing whether the new emails were relevant.

* Agence France-Presse