Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday called the timing of the FBI's announcement that it was assessing new evidence in her email case "unprecedented" and "deeply troubling."
At a campaign appearance in Daytona Beach, Florida, Clinton told her audience, "It's pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information, right before an election."
Clinton later added, "We can't let this election, in the last 10 days, be about the noise and the distractions. It's got to be about what kind of country we want for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren."
FBI Director James Comey said in a letter to lawmakers Friday that new emails had surfaced that were related to Clinton's case. He made the statement despite an FBI tradition of avoiding controversial actions in the days leading up to an election.
Reports Saturday said U.S. Justice Department officials warned Comey that notifying Congress about the new material was not consistent with department practices. Accordingly, Comey sent a letter to FBI staffers, explaining the reason behind his unorthodox move.
"We don't ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations," he said, "but here I feel an obligation to do so, given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record."
The FBI announcement sparked criticism that the agency was intervening in the U.S. presidential race. While the emails have been detected, The New York Times reported that law enforcement agents have to get a court order to actually read them, a process that would certainly not be finished before Election Day.
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Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday called this latest wrinkle in the email case "the lowest point in the history of our country."
Trump spoke at a campaign event in the swing state of Colorado, saying, "A vote for Hillary is a vote to surrender our government to public corruption, graft and cronyism that threatens the very foundations of our constitutional system." He vowed that on Election Day, November 8, "we're going to change things."
Political scientist Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute told VOA that the timing of Comey's announcement was "stunning."
"Clearly, there's no urgency in this matter," he said. "It's not going to be, very likely, sorted out for months. It doesn't seem, on the surface, to involve anything deeply nefarious. ... If you are going to announce it 11 days before the election, you have a deep obligation to be more forthcoming."
Political historian Allan Lichtman said Saturday that Comey might have made the announcement to protect his own credibility, but that the results of his act reached far beyond the personal.
"The tragedy here is, to save himself [from allegations that he hid new evidence], he has significantly biased a presidential election that is vastly more important," Lichtman told VOA. "This is going to set the course for the future of the country, not just over the next four years, but perhaps over the next generation. ... He has no business doing this."
Lichtman, who is known for his accuracy in predicting U.S. election outcomes, would not speculate on whether the development would sway Clinton voters. He said the Clinton campaign had probably done the only thing it could do in response, which was to call for the release of all information about the case. Clinton made that call Friday, noting that "even Director Comey noted that this new information may not be significant, so let's get it out."
"How do you respond to something that's so vague?" Lichtman said of Comey's announcement. "It may be that there's nothing there of any consequence, but we don't know and you can't draw any conclusions from the FBI letter."
Lichtman also noted that the FBI had been unusually forthcoming on the Clinton case, while staying tight-lipped on allegations that Russia might be trying to influence U.S. elections by hacking into computer systems.
Jason Johnson, a professor of political science and communications at Morgan State University in Maryland, told VOA he thought Comey was attempting to influence the election.
"It is impossible to separate what this announcement is from a political act," Johnson said. "It is clearly an act on the part of the FBI director to have some impact on the presidential campaign. There is something to be said about caution, about discretion."